Oficina Curumim - 50 Stories for 50 Years (Story # 38)
For 13 years, children have celebrated Brazilian Carnival with Oficina Curumim at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. Educational coordinator Simone Quessada loves it.
“It is a special moment with the children. We can bring in cultural elements from this celebration that are very important for them, and there’s confetti and streamers.”
Oficina Curumim started with a group of Brazilian parents determined that their children, born and growing up in Canada, would know they are Brazilian too.
“Our concern was that our kids would not speak our language because they have very little exposure to Portuguese. We wanted to spend dedicated time on the language and the culture. We’re going to read, we're going to watch videos, we're going to play games, we're going to do arts and crafts, but all in Portuguese, so kids could live the language,” co-founder Silvana Costa explains.
Soon, Oficina Curumim needed room to grow. Enter MPNH.
“Our approach is very similar to Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House’s. We see its care and commitment toward different cultures and different histories. And it is people-centred,” Simone says.
Now, every Sunday, Oficina Curumim uses most of the building to host a thriving Brazilian community. Seven classrooms fill with children from babies to teens, learning Portuguese through stories, music, games, art and play. Meanwhile, their parents fill the common spaces, talking, volunteering and connecting with one another.
“If you come in on a Sunday, you see there’s a lot of chitchat,” Silvana says. “It’s a social event for the parents.”
Simone is Oficina Curumim’s heart. She develops the annual program and themes with her team, hires and coordinates instructors, organizes volunteers, guides parents, plans cultural activities and celebrations, and works with MPNH to keep it all running.
“We are carrying this language and culture forward. I am happy to see a united community passing its heritage on to its children and continuing to do that even while living in another country. Of course, we value the culture here in Canada and are very grateful for what Canada gives us.”
Silvana’s daughter embodies everything Oficina Curumim set out to accomplish.
“She started participating in Oficina Curumim when she was five-ish and, in early high school, wrote an essay about herself. Her first sentence was, ‘I am Brazilian and Canadian.’ For me, it was very important to see that we had provided her with that opportunity to understand where she comes from, to a level that she identifies herself with the culture, and she speaks Portuguese.”
Simone and Silvana hope that, 50 years from now, MPNH will still be welcoming many different communities and building bridges between them. And they hope Oficina Curumim will still be there, passing Brazilian language and culture on to another generation.
Story written by Signy Marcyniuk through an interview with a long-time MPNH renter during her practicum placement at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.
50 Stories for 50 Years at MPNH is a collection of meaningful stories that celebrate the lasting impact our Neighbourhood House has had over the years. These stories come from long-time participants, families, youth, volunteers, community members, and regular visitors whose lives have been touched, supported, or transformed through our programs, services, and connections at the House.
