I will remember the times we had no classrooms to study, when there were no school meals or even water for us to drink,” Clarisse shared. There are over one million girls out of school in Brazil today. Indigenous or quilombola (descendants of escaped slaves) girls are the most likely to experience barriers to their education. Yet, the National Congress of Brazil has not renewed The Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valuing Education Professionals (FUNDEB), which is how the government makes sure marginalised schools get the resources they need to support their students. Unless Congress takes action, FUNDEB will end in December 2020.

Malala Fund’s Champion Network provides local leaders with the training and resources they need to break down barriers to girls’ education in their communities. With Indigenous and quilombola students in need of more support from the government, the Malala Fund Champions in Brazil joined forces to advocate for these communities at Congress.

Malala Fund Champions in Brazil, including Rogério Barata, Denise Carreira and Ana Paula Ferreira de Lima, organized a public hearing so that girls like Clarisse could urge Brazilian leaders to support their right to learn. At the hearing, Denise also presented a new report written by Malala Fund Champions, which explains why FUNDEB needs to be strengthened, not discontinued. It details the structural racism that prevents students in Brazil from learning and recommends how leaders can address these inequalities with changes and increases in education funding. The report also includes testimonials from girls like Clarisse about the challenges facing their schools, including poor bathrooms, unreliable transportation, underpaid teachers and insufficient access to technology.