Learning for the poor in the neglected quarters of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil
The heart of the Institute of Culture Brazil Italy Europe is the Leonardo da Vinci International Library, with its 12,000 books, CDs, DVDs and Videos in different European languages. It provides a reading, learning and research center for the impoverished residents of Salvador de Bahia. Located five miles from the city center in Ribeira, it is the only library in a large area comprising Bomfin, Ribeira, Uruguai, and the Alagados, where the appalling lack of cultural opportunities compounds the many problems of poverty and exclusion.
A Different Slant on Official Culture
An Intellectual's Library Serving the Favelas
Pietro Gallina has collected (and read!) books during his entire life, and especially amidst frequent travels throughout Europe and the Americas. This impressive library was shipped from Italy to Salvador and forms the core of the da Vinci Library. The ICBIE does not use this intellectual resource as a covenant for the high learning of the advanced cultures of the planet, but rather as a tool for the empowerment of a repressed society that has its own kind of genius, inquisitiveness and heritage, in the hope that a grass-roots use of academic learning can insure the survival of a vital and compelling native culture.ICBIE - Leonardo da Vinci Library Photos on Flickr
The entrance to the Leonardo da Vinci Library
Leonardo da Vinci Library
Instituto de Cultura Brasil Italia Europa
The seat of the ICBIE is a hundred year old building facing the waterfront.
The logo of the Institute of Culture Brazil Italy Europe, as it appears on the w...
The Leonardo da Vinci Library on YouTube
Inside the video "ICBIE Scenes"
ICBIE Scenes
A virtual tour of the Institute of Culture Brazil Italy Europe, located in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil
Runtime: 5:33
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by Rzzz
I am a high school music teacher at an American school in Rome, and I have helped to found a school for poor kids in the favelas of Salvador de Bahia,... (more)
