Search
Brazil Teaching & Community
General Information | Diaries | Photo Library | Location & Weather | Recommended Reading
Life in Manguiero Favela
Laura Wood - 3rd September 2009
Working in the Favela was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. My best friend and volunteer partner, Laura, and I would take the 40 minute bus ride through the city every day to our favela, which was located on the outskirts of Rio De Janiero past Maracana Football Stadium. Going from our guest house in the picturesque cobbled streets of the arty district of Santa Teresa in Rio, to Manguiera favela was a massive contrast. Gone are the big houses and the fashionable residents, hello to the dark and dusty ally ways and under dressed and under fed children of the streets.
This is where we were working.
For 4 weeks Laura and I worked in a small classroom under the eye of Cida, a local lady who dedicated her time and efforts to improving the health and education of the community. As a widely respected woman in the community, by taking us under her wing no-one messed with us and our presence there was greatly noticed and appreciated. Despite not speaking a word of English, and us speaking very little Portuguese, we developed a very strong bond with Cida and the children. As 
she concentrated on the health promotions, we took the kids and taught them basic English through means of writing translations, playing games, singing songs and doing arts and crafts. We had a group of around 50 kids that came and went each day. Although the majority were not orphans, they were still left on the streets all day until their parents returned. With no shoes, little food, and no role models these children are left subject to the influence of the drug lords who are infamous for controlling the favelas and their people through threats and violence. The children would be taken on early and brought up as gang members, however, by keeping them off the streets and giving them some education that the Rio state schools fail to cover we were able to give them at least a little helping hand in the right direction.
We had our class favourites, our class jokers, our class clever-clogs, our class mothers (yes, mothers at 11! Some days it would be more like a creche.) and our class drama queens, yet the harmony of it all was fantastic. They loved the attention we were giving them, the older girls came more regularly as they looked up to us like we were ‘cool’ older sister, and the younger boys loved making fun of our accents and chasing us around the classroom. We didn’t need to speak fluent Portuguese to communicate with them, with children there is an international language that everyone understands but no-one can explain. We really felt that the difference we were making to these children’s lives was obvious, yet heartbreaking to know that we would perhaps never know what would come of these children. Would the class clever clogs ever become doctors and engineers? Would the class drama queens ever become models? We can only hope that the volunteer impact we made on those children’s lives is continuously repeated by more and more people going to make the difference and keep these children on the straight and narrow. They do not have the opportunities that we have, but we can still open some doors for them.
To make our mark on the community more impact and long lasting than just memories, one of our ideas at the end was to brighten up the small alley way in which the classroom was situated, by painting a mural representing the city and the community and the beauty of both. Working alongside the children to complete the mural was breathtaking to watch, they worked with us so well and listened to our instructions and liked what we were doing for them. It was a real indication of how much we had achieved with our project. The mural was a fantastic way of showing everyone how much we love their neighbourhood and their city and the spirit of their children, the happy smiles on their faces each day despite their circumstances… nothing is worth more than that.
We also wanted to contribute more to the area by doing a group clear up of the football pitch which was unsafe for children to be playing around in bare footed - used condoms, old sanitary towels, discarded needles. So on our final day in the favela me, Laura and the children and the community grafted a good 8 hours to clean up the worst of the rubbish but the end result was definitely worth the sweat and blood we put in to achieve it! A great team community activity that ended in a big game of dodge ball with all the children, and followed by a street party that Cida organised to say thank you for our work there. The children all got food and we danced and played games, and Cida got us a cake (she fairly knew the way to our hearts!) and some certificates to mark our achievements. It was the most heart touching moment to see the community come together like that. The most fantastic end to the most fantastic experience of my life.
A Hot Sweaty Mess
Rhiannon Ball - 17th August 2009
Whilst searching the internet for information on Rio de Janeiro during moments when I should have been revising for end of year exams but instead was too consumed with excitement for my upcoming Frontier project to concentrate, I came across a quote describing Rio as a ‘hot, sweaty mess’. At the time this struck me as quite unusual and it is true that it is. But Rio is probably one of the most unusual cities I have ever been in. Lush green mountains and a bustling business district; heaving higgledy piggledy favelas and perfect security guarded luxury apartments- it could be said that Rio de Janeiro is a city of contrasts, but this is what makes it so wonderful and gives it so much character. As you sunbath on the beautiful Ipanema beach with the postcard perfect Dois Irmãos rocks to the side of you, you could be forgiven for forgetting that you are also in a major city; until that is that you realize that the birds patrolling the beach are not seagulls but the notorious city dwelling pigeons! The mixture of these different elements combined with the sweltering heat (which even during winter when I arrived regularly hit 30 degrees plus) gives weight to that quote about it being a ‘hot, sweaty mess’.
Rio is also a city in which you can witness a lady dressed in the latest designer threads stepping around a shoeless homeless man sleeping on the street under a threadbare blanket as she collects her dog from having a blow-dry at the dog beauty parlour. It is hard to escape the realities of the financial gap here and this is why I feel that the work of Frontier and their volunteers is so important. My project involved working at a crèche and I enjoyed every moment of it. The best advice I think that I could give anyone thinking of becoming involved in a project here is to learn a little Portuguese before you arrive. Whilst it is possible to get by using hand gestures I feel that I got so much more out of my project because I could communicate with the children and the women that worked there. By choosing to be a volunteer rather than simply a tourist passing through you are choosing to learn more about the culture and the best way to do this is to learn the basic phrases of the language so you can talk to the Cariocas, who are possibly the friendliest people on earth. To put it simply, imagine how much more you can teach children if you do not have to waste half the lesson trying to explain the simplest English word because you do not know the Portuguese equivalent.
If you are going to do a volunteer project here then give 100% of yourself to it because I can guarantee that Rio will give back even more of itself! Before coming here I had my heart set on spending six months studying in São Paulo but after just two weeks in Rio de Janeiro I found myself extending my stay here for another 6 months. I challenge anyone not to be bewitched by ‘a cidade maravilhosa’ just like I was.