SGI Members Testmonial - Factory of Dreams -by Telma Lucia Pereira Martins, Brazil I am a 59-year-old mother of four, and I live in São Cristóvão city near Rio de Janeiro. Although I grew up in a poor family, I was always interested in reading and in culture, and I soon became involved with theatrical productions. I also wanted to find a way to share everything I learned with other children from my community. When I was 19, I was hit by a bullet during a robbery while taking part in a youth activity. I was rushed to hospital along with the 17- and 18-year-old robbers who had also been injured. I could have been paralyzed from the neck down, but I regained full movement though I still live with the bullet in my body. I felt I somehow had a common destiny with the robbers who eventually died, and I began to dream of helping save young people from the streets. I wanted my own children to share my love for culture. So I decided to put them in the National Circus School. For a while I lost sight of my own personal dreams, until one day I decided to study theology with the aim of becoming an evangelist priest. Encounter with Buddhism Then, at a funeral for a neighborhood child, I heard the sound of Buddhist chanting for the first time. Always passionate to learn new things, I asked a friend for some books about it, then for the first time I recited Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Feeling a strong bond with Buddhism, I soon decided to quit my theology courses and started to practice Buddhism. My dream of helping young people returned, and I focused my Buddhist practice on how best I could contribute to building a peaceful world. In 1992, with the help of my daughters, I decided to create a circus school to teach the arts and stimulate self-esteem. I started this project with 28 students on a piece of borrowed land. The project was called Art Circus. My daughters had learned from circus school about the importance of working as a team and depending on each other, and I wanted others to learn the same important values. After five years I needed to find a larger space because of the growing number of students, and in 1997, through a project sponsored by Rio de Janeiro State, the city donated 5,000 meters square of land, and the Brazilian petroleum company Petrobras donated four tents and other circus equipment to our project. Mothers rushed to enroll their children in the school. The circus school now offers dance, music, circus skills, crafts, fishing and net-manufacturing classes. It also provides medical and dental care assistance to students from five to 18 years of age. All students must also be attending classes at regular school. The self-esteem of the children who attend the circus school is generally strengthened, and they become more motivated and disciplined in their studies. Dedication In 2002, due to the economic recession, companies withdrew their sponsorship, and we were left with only the food supply donated by the city government. Yet I was very fortunate that all our staff, from cleaners to doctors, decided to stay without pay because they believed so strongly in our ideals. By the end of that year we were able to renew sponsorship from a foundation linked to an oil company and pay everyone what we owed them. Our circus school has been invited to perform all over Rio de Janeiro State, and many students have been contracted to perform overseas. All students who perform abroad are asked to prepare an assignment and share it with the others when they return. I try to teach the students not to forget humility and never to be swayed by success or fame. Today more than 400 children attend our school which has been renamed The Factory of Dreams. I am delighted that through the school these young people at least have been able to develop their precious potential in life. I believe through their example they give hope to many, many more. Source via: sgiquarterly.org/people2004Jan-2.html
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:04:56 +0000
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