While the Rio 2016 Volunteer Programme has started the registration process that will end up with 70,000 people hired for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, school children in the Rio 2016 Education Programme have been busy taking the volunteering spirit into their local communities. Having proved that they understand the concept of fair play in the first of three challenges that will make up the Values Marathon – an initiative that seeks to mobilise and integrate the participating schools through collective activities – the youngsters have now taken on the second challenge, called Solidarity School.

This has involved pupils from 31 public schools across Rio carrying out volunteering actions in communities and making videos about their projects (see them all below). The objective was to create a culture of volunteering amongst the students and improve life in the surrounding areas.

“We need to return our focus to values like respect, determination and friendship. These values need to be learned and experienced in practice by the students. Little by little, we were able to pass this on to the entire school,” said Eliete Ventura, director of Orestes Barbosa Municipal School.

Pupils at Embaixador Araújo Castro Municipal School organised an afternoon of activities for youngsters with a disability, featuring dance, science, board games and sport (Photo: Rio 2016)

One of the most notable initiatives was the contribution by students at Orestes Barbosa to the Pink Ribbon Foundation, which does volunteer work to prevent breast cancer. More than 200cm of hair were donated – on average, the girls gave up about 20cm of hair each – to be used for making wigs.

According to the students, this initiative was dedicated to 16-year old student Gabriele Costa, who passed away last July from leukemia. “We were thinking about doing something about an issue that has been a major challenge for humanity and about how we could help people who suffer from this disease,” said the students in a joint statement in their video.

Youngsters from Doutor Sócrates school renovated a garden for old people and children, staged a play and collected food for a shelter, while the activity chosen by Luiz Delfino Municipal School focused on sustainability. Students and teachers led a group clean-up of Parque da Cidade (City Park) and made posters to raise awareness about the importance of the environment and its preservation.

“The city parks management department liked what we did so much that they asked us to leave the posters up at the park entrance,” said teaching coordinator Adriana Teixeira. “Everything was done by the students. We just made sure that the clean-up was done safely, distributing disposable gloves and not allowing them to pick up objects that could cut them.”

The videos have been put on YouTube and the three schools that obtain the highest number of views will win a trip to Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre, which will stage the diving and synchronised swimming competitions at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

See all the videos of the volunteer projects below: