Sarah de carvalho biography for kids

In 1993, feeling that she should be taking a different path in life, Sarah moved to Brazil and founded Happy Child International, intent on making a difference.

In 1993 Sarah founded the charity Happy Child International which in nearly 20 years has rescued over 9,000 street children in the cities of.

Sarah de Carvalho left her glittering, well-paid media career in London to live and work amongst the street children of Rio de Janeiro's slums.

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I started It’s a Penalty because I met 16 year old Rose, on the streets of Recife, North East of Brazil, in 2013. At that time, I was CEO of Happy Child International, an organisation I founded 25 years ago in Brazil to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate children in street situations. Since Rose was 11, she had been exploited on the streets. When we met during a night walk Happy Child were conducting on the streets of a marginal neighbourhood in Recife, Rose and many other young girls were out, working and looking for clients. As we talked, Rose explained that many of their clients came from all over the world, and, although she had resigned herself to a life of abuse and exploitation, she wanted others like her to be able to escape. At the time, Brazil was the focus of international attention with the World Cup commencing, and the high influx of people attending the event meant that vulnerable children and young people like Rose would be at an even greater risk of exploitation.

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MBA alumna, Sarah de Carvalho, runs ‘It’s a Penalty’ campaign at Super Bowl

The campaign has run at major sporting events, including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, last year’s Super Bowl and yesterday’s Super Bowl in Tampa. It will also run at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics.

Sarah has garnered support around the globe, developing partnerships with organisations such as British Airways and the National Crime Agency. High impact media launches have been fronted by some of the biggest names in sport including Usain Bolt, Gary Lineker and Denise Lewis.

The reach of the campaign has been phenomenal at over 500 million people worldwide so far. Brazilian crisis lines received 5,051 calls reporting cases of child exploitation during the 2016 Olympics, and 11,252 calls were received during the 2014 World Cup.

We caught up with Sarah to talk about the impact of Covid on It’s a Penalty, the launch of the It’s a Penalty Student Ambassador

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Sarah de Carvalho MBE wins our Outstanding Contribution to Society accolade

“I originally worked in media and PR,” reveals Sarah, who was awarded a scholarship to study her MBA at Surrey in 2012. “I then worked as a producer for the BBC before moving to Sky.

“Between contracts in 1993, inom heard there were children on the streets in Brazil being murdered. inom thought I’d go for a month and see what inom could do. I ended up staying for 10 years and setting up the charity, Happy Child International.

“We worked to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate children from poor backgrounds who were living on the streets. We built 15 projects in Brazil and we had one in Angola, too.”

Child trafficking

It was a chance meeting that led to Sarah’s next big project.

She explains: “When I was starting my MBA, Happy Child International were setting up projects in Brazil for children that were being trafficked and sexually exploited.

“I met a girl called Rose. When she was 11, she was sent to the stre