In the year 1958 the Terezinha and Luiz Barbosa de Souza couple finished paying for a 1.440m² piece of land in the Santa Amélia quarter, near downtown Queimados, where they lived.

Seventeen years later, in 1975, when they were already living in Flamengo, a quarter in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro City, Terezinha and Lulinha went back to Queimados in order to get rid of that piece of land, which was of no use to them any more. Yet, when they were walking along Santa Amélia's main street, they heard the following remark from a group of children that were passing by:

- "Don't care, we may steal something later tonight ..."

The sentence they heard impressed them a lot. Terrified by the reality of one of Rio de Janeiro State's most violent areas, a fact that had been just shown to them as naked truth, and knowing that it was an area lacking any kind of educational assistance, Lulinha ventured:

- "Terezinha, what about building a school here?"

Noticing that his wife had liked his idea, Lulinha carried on his explanation on how the school would be:

- "It will be just like it is in the Northeast (the poorest region of Brazil). We put all the children we find inside a classroom and then hire a teacher."

Terezinha had accepted her husband's suggestion but she didn't believe that such an important project could be put into practice in a so simple manner. As a student of pedagogy at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), Terezinha began to conceive how she would make real a project so serious and useful to the community of Queimados. A school that would not only give an occupation to the children so that they wouldn't be left wondering about in the streets, but also instruct and educate them according to the best educational standards.

It was not an unfeasible idea. Terezinha suggested:

- "We can donate the land, found an Institution and start building the school."

It would be a Spiritist Institution. Teaching, educating and evangelizing: the aim. Joanna de Ângelis, for whose works Terezinha had great admiration, would be the name of the Institution.

Terezinha was already overwhelmed by the idea. She looked at the piece of land and instead of seeing the high and uncultivated vegetation, she would see the school already built and lots of children around.

Her husband didn't oppose the great project that her mind was conceiving and let her do as she wished with the land. All that was left to be done was putting the idea into practice.

The Foundation

The first step was to explain the project to her friends at the Fancis of Paula Congregation, to which Terezinha had belonged for the last eleven years. By doing so she wanted to obtain the initial material and human resources to carry on the work. Two months later, 23 persons gathered at her home in order to know the project and discuss it properly. It was not easy for them to discuss the project before they could know the piece of land where the school would be build and the community to be assisted in Queimados. In October, 1975 four cars took the group to the place where the Joanna de Ângelis Spiritist Institution would have its headquarters. Everybody's acceptance was the result of that first contact with Santa Amélia.

After the visit the group agreed on holding a second meeting in order to found the Institution. That meeting took place at the home of Aristides Silva who was a friend of Terezinha and a collaborator of Divaldo Franco in the building of the Mansão do Caminho (Mansion of the Path), Divaldo's social welfare work in Salvador city.

The Joanna de Ângelis Spiritist Institution was founded on December 11, 1975. The next step was the great challenge to everyone: to build the school in the town of Queimados. The money that had been gathered from donations, parties and other beneficent activities was far from enough to start building. On top of that, the fact that the Institution lacked headquarters made it hard to organize the meetings and to gather human and material resources. More important than that, having no headquarters the Institution lacked credibility making people look at the school project as if it were no more than a dream, and fail to contribute to it.

Help from Heaven

Terezinha didn't know but her presence at the Home Cult held in February 1976 at the home of Aristides Silva would be of capital importance to the destiny of the Institution. One of the eleven people that were present then was the medium Divaldo Pereira Franco whose spiritual mentor is no less than Joanna de Ângelis herself.

During the cult, Divaldo, under the direct influence of Joanna de Ângelis, approached Terezinha, telling her words of encouragement and hope for the work she was trying to carry on. At the end of the cult, Divaldo asked Terezinha to bring the plant so that everyone present could see it. The project raised the interest of the trader Nicolau Saad, who offered the financial result of various bazaars held in Ipanema to support the Queimados project.

Some months later, Nicolau met Terezinha and asked her how the building of the school was getting along. After having been informed of all the difficulties that had come about due to the lacking of headquarters, Nicolau took Terezinha to the building at 1183 Nossa Senhora de Copacabana Avenue and offered an office room he had at the 7th floor to serve as the headquarters of the Institution.

At first, everyone in the group that was working with Terezinha was in a doubt as to using the office. "If we want to build the school in Queimados, why should we be installed in Copacabana?" The answer to that question would be given in full words by Divaldo Pereira Franco during the first meeting held in the new temporary Institution's headquarters in October 1976:

- "Joanna is saying that if you begin building the school in Queimados right now, enthusiasm will be gone by next winter. There is much need at this moment of gathering people, indoctrination, work and study."

Divaldo added that in the future the headquarters would be in Queimados and Copacabana would be its branch.  All doubts having been removed, the work could begin. The group did its best turning the inactive accounting office into an adequate place to establish the Institution.

In a little time the bookstore was ready and open daily to the public. Initially one and soon two public lectures per week initiated the doctrinarian study while making public the work carried out at Queimados. The presence of youths justified the creation of a Youth Spiritist Group and the service of passes increased the social welfare work in Copacabana.

The quality of the work carried out consolidated the group's credibility, resulting in more material resources being received. Such resources came both in the form of utensils donated to be sold in bazaars and as cash deposits in the Institution's bank account.

The Construction

In 1979, after two years of restless activity, Terezinha asked engineer Mario Scapin to calculate the construction cost of the school. The result left everyone in the group startled: the cost of man work alone amounted to as much as all the money the Institution had managed to gather since its foundation.

At that moment Terezinha's determination defied the caution demanded by the high budget value. Followed by Gilda Gomes, Terezinha succeeded in obtaining all the building material from the nearby stone-quarries and building sand deposits. She went to those places carrying photos, budget numbers and a lot of patience, so that she could explain as many times needed the social welfare meaning the school.

The local residents watched with much curiosity the uprising of the first school in the region, whose shape began to appear at last against the horizon of Santa Amélia. Unused as they were to receiving any kind of help, residents used to say they had come to a point they didn't believe in God any longer and that watching the school being build seemed to them as if God was coming back. One year later, on February 6, 1980, four buses full of guests, Divaldo among them, arrived at Queimados. They had come to commemorate with the residents the inauguration of the school.

The party marked the end of the building stage and the beginning of a new cycle for the Institution. Terezinha's dream had come to life. Her sensibility made her listen to the soundless cry of a whole community and to the sweet voice of Joanna de Ângelis guiding her and supporting her in all difficult moments.