A phrase once uttered once by one of the students who took part in the Mural course impressed me deeply.

Davi Carvalho, a resident of Mogi Mirim, said that he thought most important in the course and in the stories we created was the fact that the "Mural" means to bring to the media "the life in peripheral areas and not just death in the periphery."

Davi's comment was a reference to the stigma and the biased attitude that so often marks the mainstream media coverage of everyday life in the outskirts of a big city like São Paulo.

Last Saturday, we promoted a small "celebration of life" with our delivery of certificates to the participants.

Most of the students attended and they brought with them friends and relatives.

This first group will be dearly missed and will leave seveal good memories.

First, it's worth speaking of positive surprises. I never expected a course held in the midst of the World Cup would be to have such participation.

Unlike how it is in most countries, in Brazil the World Cup is much more than the subject of all headlines. It dominates everyone's agenda, it leads companies to let their employees leave sooner or arrive later, in order to watch the games of the National Squad.

But most of the group appeared from day one until the very last class. And not only attended classes regularly, but also followed by proposing stories and conducting interviews.

Many told me that the course has provided professional development, as was the case of student Suevelin Cinti.

Suevelin recalled the words of another friend who took part in "Mural", Cacau Ras, who said: It wil be weird not going to Folha (the newspaper "Folha de Sao Paulo", where the course was held) on Saturdays from now on.

For me, it will be even stranger not to see these several new friends that I've made after five lively weekends together.

Luckily, soon there comes another work, which I hope will keep alive the flame of our work, especially now at a decisive moment in which we are going to close important deals.

I'm glad that those who now will no longer attend Mural's weekly meetings have remained involved and excited.

As the Suevelin: "I wish luck to all my colleagues in the Mural and that such work goes ahead." I would make her words mine.

And I would like to thank all the participatings for creating such a beautiful celebration of life on the periphery.