Mais investimento, mais oportunidades no Rio

As I had mentioned in my previous blog, I was in Rio last week. The first 3 days were spent at the conference, from 9am until almost 7pm. So yes, they were very long days indeed. The last 4 days were spent exploring the city, walking a lot, and getting lost. Throughout the week, I would make comparisons between Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro. Although it's unfair to compare two completely different cities to each other, I found the contrasts to be fascinating. My comparisons spanned from the temperature of the beach water (Rio’s ocean water is freezing, in case you are wondering) to the prices of food (it’s cheaper in Fortaleza, especially seafood). Both cities have their positive and negative aspects, as with any city.

Orquestra Mirim

However, one thing that stood out to me the most was the amount of investment into social projects in Rio de Janeiro. My minor is in Development Studies, so I’m very much into learning about the way NGOs and GOs function. Even after a few hours of being in Rio de Janeiro, during Sustenavel 2011’s opening ceremony, I encountered my first Carioca social project in the form of Orquestra Mirim Armando Prazeres. This is an orchestra composed of 12 to 17 year olds from the Southern region of Rio.

Afro Lata

During the closing ceremony, Afro Lata, a group of youth drummers that use large metal barrels and plastic bottles as their instruments, performed with great enthusiasm. The fact that they use instruments that would normally be discarded into the garbage fits in with the overall theme of the conference, sustainability. Formed in 2003, Afro Lata is made up of youth from the community of Sao Benedito, located north of Rio de Janeiro. According to Daniel Augosto Campos, the artistic director, Afro Lata was formed...

"to offer young people healthy alternatives for fun, so that they do not join the marginalization, trafficking in drugs and prostitution."

Such social projects that work with the youth definitely do provide alternative opportunities for youth that normally would not have other options available to them.

Rene Silva dos Santos

One extraordinary young man I met during the Open Space activities was Rene Silva dos Santos, who at the age of 11 started his own newspaper called O Voz da Comunidade (The Voice of the Community). I’ll admit, when I first met him I was unaware of his story. Nonetheless, I handed him by business card and he sent me an email with his contact information. After reading and watching countless articles and interviews about him, I realized I had met a very remarkable person. Now 17, his newspaper publishes stories to bring awareness to the issues of his neighbourhood, o Complexo do Alemao, a favela that has been affected by violence and poverty. It's nice to see such a young person take a stand to improve the conditions of their community.

Morro dos Prazeres

Our host Eric, who showed us great hospitality by letting us stay in his beautiful home in Santa Teresa, connected us with one of his friends, Luis, who works in communications. We met Luis at the entrance of the favela, Morro dos Prazeres, this past Saturday. Some of the young men of the community were taking part in a futebol competition as part of the project Homens pelo fim da violencia contra a mulher (Men for the end of violence against women). A futebol tournament is certainly an innovative way to get Brazilian men involved in promoting the end of violence against women. This event was organized by the NGO Promundo and sponsored by Instituto Avon (yes, the same Avon that sells cosmetics, clothes, jewellery...etc). There are weekly workshops the men have to attend in order to participate in the tournament. For the next 2 months, there will be games taking place every Saturday. While some of the games were going on, Luis took us on a tour of Morro de Prazeres which is home to over 3000 people. There is a large community centre which provides free activities for the community, such as dance and sports classes for the children. We had a very interesting conversation about development programs in Rio, as well as the positive and negative impacts some development programs have on the community.

The information stall, see the amount of investment ($$$)
on the left side.

While heading to the Museu do Indio, we happened to stumble upon the social project Rio Top Tour in the Santa Marta community. In 2008, Santa Marta became the first favela to undergo the Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (UPP). The UPP is a program implemented by Rio's police to aggressively crack down on gang violence and drug trafficking in the favelas. Rio Top Tour is a program that promotes tourism within the favelas. Santa Marta's main tourist attraction is the Michael Jackson Square, where Michael Jackson filmed the music video "They don't really care about us." Other celebrities, like Madonna, Beyonce, and Alicia Keys have also visited Santa Marta to see the MJ site. There is even a touristic map that identifies all the main attractions of the favela that people can visit. Although the government invested heavily into this project, about $23million, the program is fairly new to see development indicators at work.

The amazing view from Santa Marta

Amber and I encountered more NGOs and GOs during our 1 week in Rio than we have during our past 3 months in Fortaleza. It just goes to show the great inequalities of investments to the North and Northeast regions, the poorest regions of Brazil.
Although I was quiet tempted (and believe me I was very tempted) to stay in Rio to finish my remaining internship months there, it was extremely refreshing to see so much development projects underway. There are more social projects we came across, but I think I've mentioned enough for the time being. Although I did do some tourist activities, I 'm glad that I got the opportunity to experience Rio in different light. Despite the fact that my mother had warned me not to go to Rio´s favelas, I'm happy to have gone. It gave me a different perspective on the social, economical, and political dynamics of Rio de Janeiro.