Brazilian students participate in launch of educational program against corruption with cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa

Brasilia, 3 April 2014 - About 80 children from a public school located in Brazil's Federal District attended the launch of the 2014 edition of the "One for all and all for one! Ethics and citizenship!" program yesterday. The initiative aims to disseminate among children values ​​such as social participation, democracy, selfesteem, respect for diversity, civic responsibility and concern about collective welfare.

In order to bring the children closer to the content, the educational materials will feature the characters from the popular Brazilian comic books "Turma da Mônica", created by cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa. This year, the program aims to reach about a 100,000 elementary school students  from 1,100 schools throughout Brazil.

The launch was attended by the cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa; the Minister of the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), Jorge Hage; the Minister of Education, José Henrique Paim; and the Coordinator of the Rule of Law Unit of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Nivio Nascimento.

In his speech, Sousa told the students: "You will help improve this country even more. You will learn about ethics and citizenship, things that are necessary for all citizens", he said. Nascimento highlighted the importance of the program for the future: "We have to invest in new generations of children, who will occupy the positions of power in the country one day."

After explaining in simple terms how corruption affects everyone's lives, Hage added: "The "Turma da Mônica" characters know far better how to teach you about combating corruption, citizenship and ethics". Paim stressed the importance of continuity for such a program, which has been implemented for the past seven years.

The "One for all and all for one! Ethics and citizenship" program has been carried out since 2008 through a partnership between CGU, the Mauricio de Sousa Institute and UNODC. In 2009, the cartoonist received the UNODC award for his actions in raising corruption awareness among children through the production of informative materials with the "Turma da Mônica" characters.

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"One for all and all for one! Ethics and citizenship!" program

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