PinBoard x Action Aid in Brazil: The Favela

Three days and five flights into our Bollocks To Inequality mission here, London appears like a molecule in the mind. We are fish out of water and the culture’s as dense as the land it’s perched proudly upon. In trying to investigate poverty and gender equality, we’ve had to expose ourselves to seeing some difficult things. A welcomed challenge to the mentality of a Brit born and bred blogger; admittedly it’s also made me question the capacity of hardship we experience in the UK compared to what some of these people here are going through. I guess it’s all about context & circumstance with variable levels of coping dependent on where & what you’re born into.

The car ride from the tourism saturated Copacabana Beach to the raw reality of Maré Favela is a gradual descent: from palm trees lining pathways for the pretty, to parasitic grounds segregated for the poor. The seemingly rich and developed vibe that Rio de Janeiro wears as its bronzed face is a mask to conceal the hidden cities within the city. We’re all familiar with the fantasies of this glamorous town, leaving us in receipt of shock when discovering the favelas (slums) here are as ‘third-world’ as any politically incorrect term should rightfully suggest.

With 180,000 inhabitants spread out across 16 communities (8 government-built, 8 self-sprung), these long-time settlers survive in the most polluted district of all Rio. Warring factions divide the Maré complex territorially; drug gangs such as Red Command and Third Command aswell as bizarrely those known as militia (ex-officers of the law now operating as racketeering squads) have created their own dictatorships and fear-mongered inhabitants into abiding under their imaginary frontiers. How is this permissible in a democratic country? Somewhere in the political pyramid there is a bureaucratic stink.

Despite sharing the same sun as the rest of the beautiful city, here in Maré its heat rises with the smell of sanitation. Architectural decay becomes a part of the design, with bullet-holed brick structures hand-built by residents themselves for the necessity of living, not the luxury of comfort. Optimistically, these residents are a muddle of hues and traits shaped by years of bi-racialism and seem to co-exist with racial fraternity at the nadir of their worries here.

Most striking however are the young people, everywhere, Some beyond their years with hardened expressions, and those slightly younger with softer features predicted to contort the same way some day soon as many enter the cycle of the streets. Recruited, trained, armed by the drug gangs with weapons purchased from corrupt police and expected to die by twenty, these brazen adolescents & pre-teens on battered sidewalk sofas lounge perversely, selling crack cocaine to locals and suburban customers brave enough to hot foot into the favela.

I watched one of these locals, an enamel-eyed addict with the atypical scratch about her… following that scratch with my gaze from her upper arm to her exposed belly until I noticed the bulge- pregnant. My head turned, stomach followed. This place is a deeply troubling part of the Earth. Moments later my colleague- a native Brazilian- informed me Maré is viewed as one of the better favelas. This told to the sensitized tourist in me, walking with a respected help organization group where still not one of us dare pull a camera out in the open and flare up hostiles.

Yet despite how disturbing things may sound, you can feel there is something organic that dwells in Maré. An undeniable spirit in the community that I was told is down to the fact a fair proportion of residents are upright against the odds and work hard to keep their families alive and fed. They just get on, trying to lead ‘ordinary’ lives against a backdrop of violence, gunfire & destitution. One can’t also help but notice there is some valued structure: small shops serving locals, some small businesses and most promisingly the presence of an Action Aid partner organization set up by the locals themselves to improve education, public safety, development opportunities and culture called REDES.

It was unfortunate to hear that females played generally subservient roles in the favela communities. However I learnt REDES is gradually working to invert this perception when I met with young women on their staff that had graduated from university. They make up a resistance echoed in the Maré and now pilot a younger generation by running workshops, activities & classes to help them reach the same plateau of higher education or at the very least higher mindset. Ultimately, it’s what these favelados will need if they are to break free of their social bondage.

Photo: Eduardo Martino / Documentography / Action Aid