Rio Winter Open

This week 7 athletes from the FT academy competed in the IBJJF Rio Winter Open that took place in the historic Tijuca Tennis Club.


Pretinha Santos won gold once again! Pretinha has been training at Terere Kids Project for less than a year but her enthusiasm for Jiu Jitsu has earned her a place at the top of the podium time and time again. She is a hard working student who also studies and works in addition to training. We are very proud to see her out there representing FT and setting an example for other girls in the community!

Congratulations to Alister Shirazi for winning gold in the White Belt division. Alister is a student from San Diego that has been living and training in Rio for 2 years now. He started helping out at the project by bringing snacks to for the kids class and was eventually adopted into the FT family!

Faby De Paula took 2nd place after a tough fight in the purple belt final against a girl from GFteam. Faby is a native of Bahia who recently relocated to Rio De Janeiro. In addition to representing FT on the mats Faby will be taking over some of the administrative responsibilities at the Project.

Karo Sarmento took 3rd place at the competition after a grueling weight cut. 

Congratulations to who Gabriel Areas and Walter Lopes also competed but didn't make it to the podium! 

Summer Updates

IBJJF Rio Winter Open

While everyone else is getting geared up and ready for Summer time, we have been preparing for IBJJF Rio Winter Open that starts June 13th. TKP will be sponsoring Fabricio Da Silva, Faby de Paula, Gabriel Areas, and Walter Lopes to compete in the competition. Two of our resident "gringos", Karo Sarmento from Colombia and Alister Shoa from California will also be competing at the competition!

On July 30th we will be sponsoring 16 athletes from the kids class to compete in the SJJSAF Brasil Open. SJJSAF provides a discount to social projects which allows us to give all of the kids that are attending school and training consistently a chance to compete!

We are currently collecting donations to finish out the registration!

English Tutoring 

Last month we made some progress with our English program. Tracking kids down and finding the time to get them to dedicate some extra hours to studying has been anything but easy but thanks to the help of Fightland Vice and a steady stream of volunteers we are able to match students up with a tutor that can work with their schedule. 

Restructuring in the Projects

Program director Nico Ball will be heading back to the U.S. for the next 5 months to train, fight, and visit her family. Nico has been responsible for managing all of the donations that are sent via PayPal. 

Stay tuned for more information on changes in Paypal account information and other updates that will be coming in the next couple of months. 

Terere Kids Project Patches

In an effort to create more stability and help teach the kids in the project the fundamentals of fundraising, we have started selling TKP patches. Patches are being sold in the academy, at Connection Rio Hostel, and by our students that are looking to save up money for supplements or competition fees. 

Patches are also being shipped in limited numbers to the U.S.

You can email TerereKidsProject@gmail.com to find out how you can get yours! 

Proceeds from the sale of patches goes 

to funding the snack program and paying for 

competition fees. 

Lastly, you can check out the June income statement by clicking here.