“Everyday we see on television victims of violence both in Brazil and around the world. However, many more people die because of hunger, which is also a form of violence.”

These words were written by 9-year-old Nicole Ribeiro Ferreira. The 3rd grade student at the Municipal School Padre Manuel de Paiva in Brazil won the Hunger Essay competition run for schools in the district of Guarulhos in the State of São Paulo. Schools all over Brazil included hunger in their lessons as part of Walk the World.

Nicole and her teacher Rosana Mio da Silva, 39, won a trip to visit the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy to meet the FightHunger.org staff.

Nicole wrote her essay during class. She said about winning the essay contest, “It was great, I did my best to win. I thought I might, that I had some chance, but not so much, but I did!" Her winning essay was written under the supervision of her teacher. Nicole has praised her teacher’s classes and declared that she “teaches in a different way, very cool, she lets us go to the blackboard for the activities.. it’s nice.”