Meninos do Morumbi is a civil society organization that works with some 4,000 children and young people in São Paulo , using music as a vehicle for promoting integration and a sense of responsibility.

BNP Paribas Brazil has supported Meninos do Morumbi’s activities since 2003. In 2007 the organization received the “Citizenship Award” from the BNP Paribas Brazil Foundation, which was personally presented to it by BNP Paribas’ Chairman of the Board, Michel Pébereau.

Meninos do Morumbi was established in 1996 to foster the dissemination and adoption of positive social values through art and culture. It also broadens the channels through which   people living in the shantytowns of São Paulo (known as ‘favelas’) enter society and participate in it as active members.

By learning to dance and to play musical instruments, young children are able to express their feelings related to hunger, exclusion, abandonment and social inequality. It also enables them to release the pressure of living in the conditions of personal and social risk. The Meninos do Morumbi team is made up of music teachers, psychologists, IT teachers, dance teachers and general educators.