Hand ’56 Gives Hope to Street Children in Brazil

The problem-solving skills he developed at Lafayette are a key in endeavors by Bob Hand ’56, including his most recent venture, a nonprofit group that helps street children in Brazil.

He believes that electrical engineering professors Larry Conover ’24, Finley Smith,and Jon Reifsnyder ’43 taught in a way that made students adept at dealing with problems because they learned a process of thinking, not just fixed answers.

“I realized this when I went on an interview after college and I was given a scenario to resolve,” Hand says. “I used the math and skills I had learned at Lafayette to work through it, and they were impressed with the results.”

Hand remembers the significant course load he had as an electrical engineering major.

“We had classes and labs 30 hours a week,” he says. “If you got through that, you knew you would do well in whatever came after.”

Hand worked in research laboratories at IBM and ITT, where problem-solving was critical to his success. When the government cut research funding, he took jobs in real estate and technology that used these skills heavily as well.

Those experiences helped Hand develop the nonprofit BizKidz. The organization, which has offices in Colorado Springs, Colo., is dedicated to helping Brazilian street kids escape the cycle of poverty and become self-sufficient.

“The first project, Projecto Sinhana Eva, opened January 2004 in Pinhimi and is run by my partner Darci Garcia de Melo. We started with 12 kids and now have nearly 200 from ages 10 to 18 participating,” he says.

Using funds from Rotary, the project set up a shop where adolescents work imprinting personalized garments and paper products. In August 2004, it expanded to include development of a commercial garden. A computer school opened in March 2005. The children get hands-on experience in operating a small business, including technical skills, money management, sales, and interpersonal relationships.

“In each case, the project is locally owned,” Hand explains. “We provide seed money, education, and support. After that, we are not directly involved. This allows us to forgo the need for a large staff and overhead at BizKidz, and more importantly, it fosters the self-sufficiency of the project and the kids involved. If we can give them hope and develop their entrepreneurial spirit, then maybe we can help them get out of the poverty cycle.”

Hand’s next challenge is to raise $100,000 so new enterprises can be started in other cities.

“Our primary learning in the first four years has been that we have to find a group of people who genuinely want to help kids become self-sufficient,” Hand says. “We can find a lot of churches or organizations that will provide charity or run programs for all adults. We are unique in dealing with adolescents. They are our future. They are not so anchored in the poverty cycle and can be more easily drawn out.”

“Through business, I learned how great it is to be free,” he adds. “When you are in business for yourself, you can control your life. I feel so strongly that everyone should have that opportunity.”

Hand tells a story illustrating how well the adolescents in BizKidz adopt an entrepreneurial spirit: “Darci and I were off one day looking for plant materials, and the next day, when we came back, we found the kids had built a bridge over a creek in the garden. They had overheard us talking about needing it, and while we were still in the talking stage, they just figured it out on their own and did it.”

The most difficult aspect of the venture has been getting the children to understand the concept of creating wealth.

“They live in a world of limited resources, and to them, for someone to have something means that someone else does without,” says Hand. “It has also been difficult to convince them that they are entitled to it. We try to show them that the abundance of the universe is open to all.”