Social project fights against invisibility in the heart of carioca inequality, the Alto da Boa Vista, in Rio’s South Zone

Credit: Press Release

By: Renato Silva – Lupa do Bem / Favela em Pauta

Founded in 2017 by five friends and reactivated at the height of social isolation in the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Favela em Desenvolvimento (Favela in Development) is a social center in the Alto da Boa Vista cluster of favelas. It focuses on development through culture and education, especially in reading, as it has as one of its leaders the journalist and poet Rennan Leta.

The Alto da Boa Vista region is known for housing mansions, sharing borders with middle-class and even more expensive neighborhoods in the city, such as Jardim Botânico, Gávea, and São Conrado, among others. But it is also home to some 11 favelas, such as Morro do Açude, Morro da Agrícola, and Mata Machado.

And even in the midst of so much wealth and urban development, there is once again the cruel neglect of the public power through the years and decades, which besides inequality, also produces an erasure and oblivion for those who live in these favelas.

The founder and mobilizer Rennan Leta says that the launching of his book was the turning point to start promoting access to culture still in his slum, Mata Machado. “It was the year that I launched my book ‘Words of the World’, and then I made a community library. It was the first action named Favela de Desenvolvimento, in May 2017, and then I started to do several events also in the area of culture, soirée, poetry festival, rhyming circle and so on, all within this universe of poetry and rap,” he explains.

With a hiatus generated by the professional needs of each member, the project remained inactive between 2018 and March 2020, when the members were forced to return, but this time with a focus on mitigating the effects of the pandemic in the slums of Alto da Boa Vista. At that time, José Artur Júnior (current president), Diego Ferreira, Guilherme Oliveira, and Rennan Leta joined forces in search of help to bring information, hygiene kits, and food to the tables of the neediest in the region, reaching more than 800 families.

One of the founders, Arthur Júnior, says that it is very impactful to be involved in this organization and help so many people where he was born and raised. “This idea of ours of making ourselves available to impact people’s lives positively, this is very good. I believe that in people’s eyes this is a little invisible. But with time we intend to establish this thing within our community, of making yourself available, being able to help, open the house, sit down, and ask ‘what is your problem’,” says Júnior, who gets emotional when he remembers being stopped by the kids from the Mata Machado slum to hear the school’s news. 

“To help the people of the neighborhood where I was born and raised and leave a great legacy, you know. Knowing that when you walk down the street the kids call you Uncle Junior. Like ‘Hey Uncle Junior, will I be able to play today?’, ‘Uncle Junior, I already went to school’, ‘Uncle Junior, I got a good grade’.

Even with so many difficulties to get the regulation of activities, the short time, the need to interrupt the activities, the Favela in Development is already in compliance with the laws, has a registered CNPJ and today can draw more daring goals, which can also be called dreams, as in the lyrics of the poet, journalist, and co-founder of the social center. 

“To make the Favela in Development a reference in training and empowerment, especially of the young public. The young public is from early childhood to young adult and for this reason our actions today are totally focused on the areas of education and culture,” says Leta.

Rennan goes on to say that, besides the objective training, the biggest dream is to form with these young people a future generation of adults who are more aware and active in social transformation. “It is also about doing politics; it is about building debates around social agendas, around respect for others. To form people, this is it, people who in the future will build not only the Favela de Desenvolvimento, not only Mata Machado, but Rio, Brazil,” she concludes.

How to follow and support “Favela under Development

Today the project “Favela in Development” already has its headquarters in Praça Machado Costa nº 03 – Sobrado, in Alto da Boa Vista. Those who want to know more about the work done by the social center can access their profiles on the social networks or the website favelaemdesenvolvimento.org. 

It is also possible to contribute financially through the site, by various means such as pix, transfers, credit card, and can be done by clicking on the option “doe” in the main menu of the site.