Cultural festival gathers together students from 23 schools from Rio Branco do Sul and Itaperuçu. Over 1 thousand 600 people, including students, their families and teachers, from 23 schools located in the municipalities of Rio Branco do Sul and Itaperuçu, Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, took part, between November 30th and December 2nd, in the cultural festival of the program entitled "Amigos do Futuro" (Friends of the Future), a partnership of Instituto Votorantim with Canal Futura, which is present in all the regions of the country where there are units of the Votorantim Group. The event will be divided into two stages. Wednesday (November 30, 2005), will be fully dedicated to the presentation of the young talents selected at the schools that are participating in the project in the region. Divided into two shifts, from 9 to 11.30 a.m. and from 1.30 to 4 p.m., the presentations are being held at the gymnasium of Clube Ermírio de Moraes, in Rio Branco do Sul. Thursday and Friday (December 1st and 2nd), will be dedicated to the cultural workshops, in which the youths will have the opportunity to develop activities in various artistic areas such as theater, crafts, dancing, music, photography, graffiti art, circus arts and others. All told there will be 25 workshops based on the programming of Canal Futura – which aims to divulge knowledge and to bring students closer to several teaching institutions. "In 2005 and 2006 the topic of our activities is cultural appreciation. The proposal of the festival is to present what has already been developed at each school and to promote the contact of students with a wide variety of cultural manifestations, which will serve as a basis for next year’s activities", explains Daniela Diniz de C. Neves, state coordinator of Community Mobilization of Canal Futura. Active here in Paraná since 2001, "Amigos do Futuro" is focused on education, as a means of developing the spirit of citizenship, quality of life and respect for the environment. For this purpose, the program seeks to train mobilizers in the use of educational tools, promoting spaces of knowledge and attitudes towards the future. The project has already been deployed at schools from 32 municipalities, in ten Brazilian states.