Cooking For Life (CFL) is a Christian charity based in Uberlandia, Brazil and provides training programmes for young people in underprivileged areas to become chefs and waiters, enabling them to gain employment.  Until now 193 young people have been trained, the majority of whom are now working. CFL also runs a non profit-making restaurant to help fund the training programmes where the students gain work experience.

Below is an amazing story of a changed life of one of the students at Cooking For Life:
 
Romulo’s story - ‘A New Start’

Born in 1984, by the time Romulo reached the age of 14 he  was regularly taking drugs, and in order to support his habit he started to steal. This  inevitably led to a life on the street and separation from his family.
A teenage father by the age of 16, he was separated from his daughter two years later when arrested and sent to prison for a year and two months.
Within 6 months of his release, Romulo was back in prison for another 4 years due to his heavy crack cocaine usage and life of crime. After a series of hallucinations he was transferred to a psychiatric secure unit where over the course of two years he tried to commit suicide several times.
In May 2008 he was finally released from prison. It was the happiest day of his life, as his parents welcomed him back home.
Unemployed and without much hope of finding a job, Romulo was again contemplating a  return to a life of crime, when a social worker offered him the opportunity to undertake the training programme at Cooking For Life. With his parents’ encouragement  and support he accepted this lifeline.
Romulo had successfully completed the programme by September 2008 and now works as a waiter at Cooking For Life.
Romulo says that every day he thanks God for changing his life.  He believes that God protected him and enabled him to stay alive.
 
He is so grateful to Cooking for Life for giving him the opportunity to find Christ, and now he no longer wants his family to suffer because of him and is determined to continue working in order to  earn a good salary and have more children.  
 
Romulo’s story is not unusual at Cooking For Life.  There have now been 16 training programmes with 193 students graduating, many with stories of changed lives similar to Romulo.
 
There are no administration costs incurred in Cooking For Life with 100% of donations being spent on training young people.
 
Would you like to consider partnering with us in this life changing ministry?
 
Just £15 a month will enable one student per year to complete a training programme, £25 a month two students and £50 a month four students.
 
To donate or read more stories of changed lives, please visit the website for further details www.cookingforlife.org.uk