The summer holidays in Rio are long, hot and humid. They can be particularly hard on the youth of Rio’s favelas. Stuck inside their poorly ventilated houses, they don’t always have much to do.

Bored and starved of attention, these young people are in a vulnerable state. At best, the academic and behavioral gains made during the school year deteriorate; at worst, they can get mixed up in trouble on the streets, or even recruited into drug trafficking gangs.

EduMais is proud to offer Summer Camp Programs to support these at-risk children and teenagers during the school holidays. We fill their summer afternoons with academic learning, creative and physical activity, and healthy food options. It’s a happy combination of fun and education!

Building on the success of our English Summer Camp, we launched a new program in 2022: Serious Game Design in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Our Serious Game Design Summer Camp follows the same structure as English Camp, but it’s more intensive. For three weeks, students spend 7 hours a day, 3 days a week, learning the full dynamics of game creation—from animations to programming, from paper prototypes to marketing strategies. In the fourth week, they come together in a Game Jam, where each group develops a unique project, creating both board games and digital games around different themes.

Balancing Play and Learning

Afternoons are dedicated to physical activities and group games, where students continue practicing their English speaking skills in a fun, active way. This balance ensures they don’t lose sight of the language while also developing teamwork, confidence, and social skills outside the classroom.