Kyra Gracie and the Acao Social Project

On the first week of my trip, Dennis Asche arranged for me to go out and see one of the many social projects in the area; this particular project is the brainchild of none other than Kyra Gracie and every Tuesday you can be sure that Kyra is at the Acao Social project in Vargem Grande, near Recreio. She has two projects in the area and divides her Tuesdays between both schools, teaching three classes in the morning and three in the afternoon.

I headed over there with Aldir, Max and Leozinho who all help at the schools and teach jiu jitsu to the children; the projects started by Frei Gaspar, a monk who owned some land and started with a soccer court thirty years ago and then began to build extra buildings and from an initial student base of a handful of kids, there are now over 120 children at the school today.

Frei Gaspar died in 2003 but his legacy continues thanks to the help of Bruno and Renato who manage the school and have a staff of twenty three to help them run music and PC classes, as well as aerobics and capoeria classes. Kyra runs the BJJ classes and Judoka Flavio Canto teaches Judo on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.



Also on the site is a chapel for the children that was built thanks to the financial donations from local actor Oscar Niemeyer in August 2008 and the children have a service once a month.

I arrived early in the morning and stayed all day at the school and joined in six jiu jitsu sessions; I don't think the children had seen many gringos until now and what a treat they had in store for them with my good self. They flocked around me and spoke to me in babbling Portugese, all laughs and smiles and were very taken with my tattoos on my calf and foot. After the excitement the children trained jiu jitsu and started with basic self defence moves, a few technqiues then rolling and there were some very able young children all loving jiu jitsu and it was a pleasure to watch the kids enjoy training and pick up jiu jitsu skills at the same time.



The children have also been enjoying success at BJJ competitions and will be competing in October and November this year and who knows maybe some of them will be at the Mundials in years to come??

Huge thanks to Dennis for sorting the trip out and to Bruno and Renato for their hospitality throughout the day.

More pix on my Facebook account :)

http://www.asfreigaspar.org.br/