Return to the Favela — Salvador, Brazil

  Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Monday, July 30, 2012

The last time we were in the community of Roca do Sabina, the Favela near Barra, we were just passing through, kicking off the historic city tour and only stopped long enough to say hello to a few people and chatted briefly with two small boys.    

So on Sunday evening, as planned, we returned to spend more time and meet some of the families in the community.   Unfortunately we were not surprised to find that the issues, the mentality, the hopes and aspirations but also the sense of hopelessness and apathy was no different from in many African or Caribbean communities globally; and ironically, that at the same time, the very existence of the favelas arise out of a sense of self-reliance and hope for a better future. 

When we arrived the place seems very lively with lots of music as the young men were busy preparing for an entertainment event, a regular weekend activity

.    Our first stop was at the local shop at the entrance to the community where we engaged the owner in conversation.   She was very amicable and willing to talk to us and answer our questions.  We were keen to hear about the daily experiences of life in the community and the social issues facing people.   She told us that several of the young people had been to university and some are working as teachers, security guards etc.      Education was a major concern mainly due to the fact that children had been out of school for the past 3 months due to strike action by teachers in the public schools.   When asked what people were doing for themselves to ensure that their children's education does not suffer she pointed out that no one was doing anything, neither the community, the church nor the young people themselves as most of them spend their days at the beach and playing football. Politicians and churches only came around when they needed support for their programs.  She said there was a community association but that it was just a talking shop.    She agreed that there was a lot of material poverty but concluded that the biggest problem was that people are spiritually poor, "every man for himself and god bless the rest".

We then ventured further into the community and met a group of young women sitting together.   We wanted to hear from them about their life experiences, their hopes and aspirations so we spent a while talking with them.     They were between the ages of 12 and 17 and none of them spoke English although the oldest was hoping to learn and spoke just a few words so we had to talk through the guide as an interpreter.   

The discussion was very interesting and they expressed themselves very well.     The school situation was a problem for them as they were all hoping to go on to university and the 17 years old was in her final year of school

.   As they described it, they were suffering because of the lack of schooling.   When asked what they were doing to stay on track with their studies they said “nothing”.  It was not the general practice to study outside of school; they help their mothers around the house and also to care for their younger siblings.

We encouraged them to think about ways in which they can become more self-reliant. One example we explored was for the 17 year old to start organizing self-study classes with the younger ones for a couple of hours per day.  The aim being to ensure that they do not fall too far behind in their studies by the time they returned to school.    They were all interested but seemed somewhat phased by the idea.    The 17 year old expressed that if it is up to her, she will definitely be starting this kind of program but she wasn’t confident that they younger ones would take guidance from her.  

The discussion continued for some time in an attempt to inspire them to think positively.    Other young women joined the group from time to time; some young men stood nearby and listened or stopped to greet us on their way to their music event but never actively joined the discussion.   We also gave them an insight into some of the issues that young people faced in the west and explained some of the similarities with African communities in other parts of the world.    We talked about the need for focus and determination, belief in self and to believe that anything is possible.  We talked about looking at history for examples of how we had overcome great obstacles in the past to achieve great things and to use those examples as inspiration.

The mother of the girls listened in on the discussion and joined in towards the end

.  She was very grateful for our intervention and encouragement and e left feeling that if any sort of program was started it would have her support.    We ended the discussion by asking the young women to think about what we had discussed and promised that we would return to see them before we left Brazil for them to tell us if they were committed to starting a self-help program.

We returned the day before leaving Brazil and helped them to devise a basic study program, agreeing a name for the program, aims and basic objectives.    There are teachers in the community and they will be asked to help provide guidance to the young people to set up an effective program.  So far three others has given their commitment to join the program, all young women and everyone knows that it will be a big challenge to get young men involved.   The immediate next step  now is to maintain communication and support them in developing the program.