Baluarte World

Together we can change the world one child at a time!

Our Impact

We educate over 400 children in Luanda (Angola) and over 150 children in Nordeste (Brazil), helping families create sustainable communities. We are now, planning our school in Congo!

Baluarte is a home for children in need. In Luanda, we have a team of over 40 employees providing education from toddlers to 6th grade, daily meals and after school programs. including music classes, theater, circus, dance, Christian discipleship, information technology and technical training. In Nordeste, we offer after after school programs and programs for parents aiming to create self sufficiency and income opportunities.

Our current project

Help us implement a school for 300+ war orphans in Goma, Congo. Many orphans in Goma have lost their parents as a result of the ongoing conflict in the region. Without the support of their parents, they do not have access to education or other resources they need to succeed in life. A school specifically for orphans can provide these children with a safe and nurturing environment where they can learn and grow. Additionally, a school for orphans can also provide other support services such as counseling, health care, and food assistance to help them overcome the challenges they have faced and improve their chances of success in life. We need $150.000,00 to buy the land and build this school.

Our Story

The Departure of the Missionaries to the Democratic Republic of Congo

In 2012 the Democratic Republic of Congo was the first country of work for the young founders Marcos Freire (17 years old) and Jonnes Queiroz (19 years old). They lived for 2 years in the country and, during that time, wrote a story of great struggles and challenges.

Moved by impetus and revolt, the missionary brothers sold Brazilian snacks at the door of an elite school in the capital, where Marcos sang in the Congolese dialect (Lingala) to attract attention. This resulted in money to purchase food to help the families in extreme misery and abandonment in the villages.

Back to Brazil, now mature, with a defined vision: BALUARTE.

The name Baluarte, which before was just a verse of one of Marcos Freire’s songs, became something more profound, where its meaning seemed to combine with their vision of a place they wanted to build in Africa. Refuge, help, protection, and security; inviolable and impenetrable, as is a fortress, in Portuguese, Baluarte.

Scavenging the Earth, the Place is Found

Dissatisfied with the lack of structure and resources during the two years of stay in Africa, three years later, the young men returned to the African nation with a group of missionaries, where they made their biggest frustration a mission: BALUARTE focused on changing the mentality of every individual through FAITH and positive thinking via education, sport, art, dance music, circus and various vehicles of knowledge.

Inauguration of Baluarte in Angola

In Luanda, the Angolan capital, where any type of free access is inexistent, the first base of the institution is born in an impoverished neighborhood with no water, electricity, schools, and accessible health care. There are cases of families forced to hunt rats to feed a house that habited an average of 7 to 14 residents, each living with the complex reality of having to sleep together on a dirt floor and tin walls. AND, IT BEGINS!

In the Northeast of Brazil

The COB (Baluarte Operational Center) has its base located strategically in the city of Campina Grande – Paraíba monitoring all our work around the world.

It is also at the headquarters of the queen of Borborema that we provide support to children and families in vulnerable situations from diverse communities. We project reaching many rural communities that suffer from drought and food shortage. We recruited dozens of missionaries/volunteers from all over Brazil enacting our prevention work.

The US branch of Baluarte is a non profit organization registered in the US and located in Boston, MA.