It was not known what to call it. There was no acronym, no logo. Governor Ricardo Coutinho had a vision of installing in Paraiba a program modeled after Bahia's NEOJIBA, which is itself a project inspired by Venezuela's superb FESNOJIV, commonly known as "El Sistema" of youth orchestras. There were differences. Paraiba's program was to be based on state public schools rather than in a theater or conservatory. Coutinho called Alex Klein to launch the Program and be its General/Artistic Director. As part of the launching, Coutinho committed the state to pay for an instrumental lot fit for 10 orchestras. When added to music stands, strings, reeds, metronomes, tuners and other accessories this amounted to nearly 7000 items.
Paraiba is located on the northeastern coast of Brazil, boasts beautiful beaches and historic buildings, has wealth but it is poorly distributed. The state's per capita GDP ranks 24th among Brazil's 27 states. When you consider that the mostly-forested Amazonian region has 7 states, and that a few of those have a higher GDP per capita than Paraiba you begin to understand what we were up against, how big the effort was to build the program, and how important it was to avert an eventual social collapse. Paraiba's economy comprises just 0.8% of Brazil's (2004, Wikipedia). Some of its cities and neighborhoods are listed among Brazil's most dangerous, crime infested and its residents increasingly more excluded from the benefits of a growing democracy.
