If you are not in Brasil and/or do not speak Portuguese and/or cannot afford a long distance phone call you mail e-mail me at pwagner@iei.net and I will make every effort to put you in contact through an intermediary.

An open letter to friends of Didá

Dear friends of Didá,

Since the mid 1990s the Didá School of Music has been developing for, and delivering to, the women and children of Salvador, Bahia programs promoting music, culture, participation in family life, responsibility to society and academics. Didá pursues these programs on both professional and pre-professional levels in the historic district of Pelourinho in Salvador, which is the soul-center of Afro-Brazilian cultural expression.

Didá is dedicated to improving the condition of women and children through constructive social engagement revolving around a core of music and dance classes offered at the Didá educational center. In recent months Didá has continued to expand it's offerings, and it's dream to serve an ever increasing number of those who live on the margins of existence. Maestre Neguinho do Samba and the Didá staff believe in the need to incorporate the family, the community and the public schools in it's efforts to ensure that all students are well served.

Didá has also devoted itself to providing professional opportunities for young women to express themselves culturally. This commitment culminated in release of the first Dida female percussion band CD in April of 1999. As of this writing, banda feminina Didá was the only Afro- Brazilian percussion ensemble composed of only women. This group celebrates Afro-Brazilian culture and promotes Afro-Brazilian cultural awareness by performing at high profile events throughout Brazil.

The Didá school of music is a non-profit organization that offers training to women and children in music and dance, focusing on traditional local styles such as Afoxé drumming, Afro- Brazilian dance and the Brazilian martial art form known as capoeira. Didá hopes to expand it's curriculum to also emphasize on visual arts. Didá offers it's classes, and participation in the performing arts, free of charge to women and children from poor districts in Salvador. These groups have historically been denied widespread participation and professional training related to cultural expression.

Maestre Neguinho do Samba, whom Brazilian music super star has referred to as the "god of percussion" is, along with Carlinhos, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and others, one of the true pioneers of Brazilian music. Neguinho who has become reknown throughout Brazil for his innovative percussion based expressions learned to tap out rhythms on his mother's wash tub. He directed the Afoxé drum corps Olodum on Paul Simon's The Rhythm of the Saints, and used his share of the proceeds to purchase the building in Pelourinho where Projeto Didá is now located.

In 1990, and again in 1992, Neguinho traveled to New York and California where he conducted a series of Afoxé drumming workshops for public school children. He has also traveled to Haiti and lusophone Africa conducting similar workshops, has been publicly recognized by the mayor of Tokyo and twice been visited by the President and First Lady of the United States.

Didá has, up until now, received the majority of its financial support from Neguinho himself, and asks the families of students from better situations to pay tuition according to their means. Approxilmately 20% of students pay some level of tuition, while others participate in the physical maintenance and administration of the school. As of this writing neither the Federal Government of Brazil, nor the State government of Bahia, have responded to Didás requests for assistance. The municipal government of Salvador funds a meal program for Didá students. As the Brazilian economic problems are addressed funding for social programs is exceedingly difficult to come by. In this time of need Didá is turning to you, it's friends in the international community, for help.

The commitment of Didá is to instill in it's students an understanding of, and appreciation for, the knowledge and behaviors necessary to be successful within society. It is not the aim of Didá to provide charitable relief to the marginalized of Brazil. It is the aim of Didá to provide women and children with the means and the motivation to secure their own future.

Healthcare, computer training, funding for teachers, transportation for students, school supplies and establishing a center for the study of music theory and evolution in Bahia are all on the priority list of needs for Didá. As you can see the list is long, but these "needs" are well founded, and Didá can do so much to alleviate the pressures of so large a population relegated to the margins of Brazilian society. Didá has already laid the groundwork for establishment of OB-GYN and pediatrics clinics within it's facility by assessing costs for necessary materials and securing the interest of doctors to volunteer their time. The need for a van to transport students to and from marginal neighborhoods, the purchase of computer equipment (even used) and school supplies and build-out of facilities for the medical clinics are of the highest priority. As of this writing, Didá is still trying to recoup the physical space for the clinics, which was "loaned" to the local municipality.

If you would like further information about Projeto Didá, or are willing and able to offer assistance please contact us at:

Neguinho do Samba or Vivian Queiros
The Didá School of Music
Rua João de Deus, no 19
Pelourinho, Salvador
Bahia, Brazil CEP 40025-080
You may also call Didá from anywhere in the world at 011-55-71-321-2042, or contact Vivian via cell phone at 011-55-71-8804-4807.
We would like to thank you, in advance, for your interest and support, In the spirit of Didá (which in the African Yoruba language means the feminine force of creation and nurturing) we wish you the best of fortune in your own endeavors.
With greatest respect and sincerity,

Neguinho and Vivian

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A letter to Didá from then President Clinton

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

November 10, 1997

PERSONAL
Didá Banda Feminina
Rua João de Deus No. 19
Pelourinho
Salvador-Bahia
CEP 40025-080
BRAZIL

Dear Friends,

      Thank you so much for helping to make our visit
to Brazil so enjoyable. Mrs. Clinton and I had a
wonderful time at the Presidential Palace, and your
performance was a highlight of the evening.

     
Thanks, too, for the flags and the book about
your group. We appreciate your generosity and send
our best wishes.

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton

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Bahia allies electronic music and percussion to promote social inclusion among youth in society

The following August 7, 2003 article was authored by Leandro Fortino of Folha in São Paulo

My liberal English translation follows ...

At the age of nine he made drums from milk cans for a boys sound group. Almost 40 years later he's already played with Michael Jackson and Paul Simon and has a personal history marked not only by the innovation of Samba Reggae, a style commonly associated with Axê music, but principally for having helped to bring more than 1,700 children off the streets to pursue musical careers as percussionists.

Neguinho do Samba, 48, led such famous groups as Ilê Aiyê (11 years), Olodum (16 years) and (currently) Banda Feminia Didá, which celebrated it's 10th anniversary on December 13th. Now he's integrating a new project, Electcro Cooperativa, into his efforts. The new initiative is intended to provide youth from needy communities with opportunities to contribute to society in unique ways while advancing music.

Saturday, 9 August at 8 PM, Neguinho conducted an extraordinary group in Tereza Batista Square in Pelourinho. This special group of musicians was formed from the memberships of such existing groups as Projéto Axê, Cortéjo Afro, Male de Balé, Muzenza and Filos de Ghandi. Paulista DJs Patife, of Drum'N'Bass ad CIA of hip hop were also there.

The aforementioned mega-group was the primary result of the Electro Cooperativa that will have youths of 12 to 25 years of age access studio technologies used for production, including access to DJs and technology to create electronic music.

In a facility at 34 João de Jesus street, in Pelourinho, three computers have been installed with internet access. A set of two professional recording players, two CD players, a mixer, speakers and indispensable music recording specific software have also been installed there.

The idea for this new venture arose in early 2002 from four people who associated to form the music enterprise Bamba. "Bamba", incidentally, also means 'to be an expert' in popular language. The four concluded that there was a need to work with music as an element of social inclusion, partly because there weren't enough electronic music artists to effectively launch their new label.

"The great opportunity for social inclusion in Brazil comes from two points of origin, sport and music. These venues offer the simplest way to socially enfranchise people that are without opportunity. We're locating ourselves where the existing music industry activity and equipment will allow participating children to produce their own disks" affirmed Reinaldo Pamponet, a representative for one of the associations involved in the project.

For this they counted of the support of the Secretary of Culture of Bahia, which purchased the equipment and provided (not gave) a building in Pelourinho which they could use. They're relying on the Institute of Patrimonial Artistry and Culture of Bahia, which oversees Youth Projects under Development, to give support that should be required to effectively document the history of the Afro-Blocos. In the end they'll be able to provide internet consulting from sites created by the youths themselves.

"In practice each group will conduct it's own social project, involving percussionists in their communities. Each of them has it's own educational and artistic work to perform" explained Pamponet.

To teach the youth participants (many have never held a computer keyboard in their hands) how to operate the equipment and software programs, the project will have the support of Quanta Music. Quanta is a technology based enterprise capable of providing students with a basic understanding of information technology in addition to courses in recording, mixing and creating masters.

The idea is to identify talents specific to individual youths and then help them to develop those to a professional level. "Some of the youth will study to become DJs. Others will learn how to operate studio equipment, how to make disks. And we're also going to establish a capacity for providing our own technical support since when our equipment breaks the community encountering the difficulty will have to resolve it themselves".

The next city to have an 'electrocentro' will be São Paulo. It will probably be installed at the Mote Azul Foundation in Morumbi.

Three days of round tables with musicians, journalists and professors from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) were held in the First Faculty of Medicine in Brazil auditorium, in Pelourinho. Among the participants were journalist Hagamenon Brito, the Italian master composer Aldo Brizzi (a former student of Pierre Boulez and Leonard Bernstein) and Oscar Dourado, head Professor of Transverse Flute at UFBA.

No link back to my main site ("Phillip's Brazil Web Pages") is needed. Simply click on 'Page Reset' in the top frame to reset my Web-site to it's original display. If you don't see what I'm talking about you probably got to this page directly. In that case; please logoff and re-enter at http://www.iei.net/~pwagner/brazilhome.htm. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

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Last updated: 02/20/04
Copyright 1998 Philip Wagner