Journeying into the Favelas

The Favelas of Vitoria

On Monday we were able to take an actual tour of the favela that surrounds the institute where we have been doing our service project and where many of the children who attend Joao XXIII live. I can honestly say it was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. We were accompanied on the tour by a social worker who works at XXIII and she was our guide through this favela that few outsiders are privileged to enter.  There were also a few other members that came with us that were architecture students and gurus who came to inspect the structural foundation of the favelas and offer their services to aid the people in constructing safe houses. The group set up a tour of an actual home with one of the little girls who goes to the school.

The entrance to Vanessa's

Her name is Vanessa and she is about 9 years old. I have been playing chess, learning portuguese and getting to know her for the past week and I had no idea what this little girl lived through everyday. Vanessa lives with her grandmother and her great aunt - her mother left shortly after she was born never to heard from again and her father was arrested for gang activity. The "house" she lived in was behind someone's house in an alley that connected to the main road. With rusted bed frames, old ladders and garbage lining the walls of the ally we had to watch all of our movements just trying to get a glimpse into her world. The house consisted of 2 rooms, a small kitchen with enough room for a stove, small broken sink and one counter with rusted appliances all over it and a bedroom/living room that had a twin bed and a full bed pushed up next to each other with a bureau and dresser less than three feet from the beds. The whole house seemed artificially damp because the roof is so old that in the last bad storm some of it came off, so the rains that have been occurring here basically every three days have been running into their house and soaking everything that they own. The bed had damp sheets and pillows on it, the walls were peeling from the condensation and the toaster over was rusted from water exposure. The bathroom was a room right next door where you showered while hovering over the toilet and also had the same rain water leakage problem. Vanessa's grandmother makes homemade ice cream like popsicles and sells them on the street, she makes about $125.00 Reals a month. From this she has to pay for personal medicine, take care of another adult and raise a child. As she was telling us about her daugher's struggles and raising her granddaughter, I could see the tears in her eyes that she was trying to hide under her straw hat and all of the pain and stress she deals with on a day to day basis.   Being able to take a peak into Vanessa's life has forever changed mine.

The community center

The next part of our tour was to the local social services office, where those families, like Vanessa's, who are struggling can register for Brazil's Bolsa Familia plan (where kids get ID cards and are given aid based on the number of registered children you have and that attend school) as well as basic food rations, Brazilian rights courses and classes on how to get involved in society. The people working there have such a deep understanding of favela life that the rows and rows of endless houses to us, are individual families that they know and help everyday. After the social center we were able to tour the school not far from the institute, where many of the children attend.

A mural in the school

The school was built in 1946 and according to the principle has pretty much remained the same except for some minor improvements - however most huge ideas that were created for the school, ie. new annex, were never followed through due to the government and a space issue. Going to a Brazilian school was so surreal, it was loud and the children were out of control in their classrooms and randomly kids were walking around the school. We were able to look inside the rooms and one small room had about 50 kids all crammed around the sides of the walls sitting down just talking, yelling and messing around, after we left we were told that is where kids from the AM classes go all day when their parents cannot get them because they are at work. All day from 7 am to 6 pm they sit in that class room and wait for their families. After touring the school we saw three or four small kites (pipes) flying in the sky,  we were then informed that those kites were showing the drug affiliates where we were and they had been following us all tour long. Flown by boys around the ages of 9-13 they were scouts recruited by the drug gangs to just see what we were doing and where we touring while out. No harm was ever going to come to us while with locals and we were given permission - by whoever - to enter this well guarded community. We were not allowed to take pictures while in the school, just fyi.

The steps people have to climb to get to their houses

The favelas that over look Joao XXIII

This tour was the highlight of my trip so far and really showed me what our whole project was about - getting the community involved in enriching the lives of it's citizens and children. Through our beautification project we hope to inspire, even it is just one or two, people to realize the importance of community in the positive sense of the word and to be invested in what is happening and who is in control. Again, this is just a hope, but through the reactions from our project already, I can foresee it becoming a reality!
Tchua, Tchua!
Alexis