Ponto de Equilibrio - Janela da Favela

Rocinha

Rocinha is by far Rio's most famous favela. Home of many favela tours, she's the easiest one to access and has always been considered the biggest favela in south america,which is not true anymore. She even has her own Wikipedia   page, where you'll find some interesting facts... You'll learn that it is located between Gavea and Sao Conrado, on a hill called "Dois irmaos" or "Two brothers". You'll learn that it's run by a drug gang. You'll learn about police raids and drug selling. But you wont learn anything about its residents and what it's like to live in Rocinha. So let me present you a census realised in the community and publied by the Observatorio de favelas , a brasilian ngo encouraging a reflexion on the future of the favela. You will read a lot about them in those pages as I am a huge fan of their work.

The census was realised in july 2009 in Rocinha and recensed 38 029 buildings for 100 818 residents and a majority of women (51,5%).
Rocinha, according to the census, is also home for 6508 businesses. The unemployement rate is, on my owm french opinion, incredibly low with 7,7% and 23,5% of the questionned people are reportedly currently studying.

People were also asked about their living arrangement's main problems : natural lighting and ventilation came first (41, 8% each), lack of space and humidity were also widely invoked. Just to explain, a favela is basicaly a labyrinth of one meter wide alley-ways. You basicaly needs to keep the light on all the time and can't really expect the fresh air to enter your livingroom...

According to the census, 86% of the buildings are connected to the sewing system. What they don't tell you is that the sewing system in rocinha is an open one, which means that along the street runs the filthiest river you've ever seen.....

Also what a census wont ever tell you is the noise of a favela. Its music blasted all the time, pagode during the day and Funk during the night, it's moto taxis everywhere, people yelling, kids laughing, dogs yapping.... and birds singing.

Getting Started

It took me some time to start this blog and start documenting my experience in Rio de Janeiro - a year exactly. Maybe I needed to learn the language, maybe I needed to know more about the culture, the politic and the way things work in Brazil. Maybe I needed to come close to the end of that first experience to look back at what happened this year, what I learned and what I can now share. I can now, if not understand, at least have my own opinion about the favela and the national politics regarding it.

Janela para favela means “ a window to the favela”. It’s my own point of vue, the point of vue of an outsider, the point of vue of a french woman volunteering in Rio’s biggest community. I do not live in Rocinha, I am not brasilian. I am an outsider in every sense of the word. And as much as I am involve in the community, I look at it with a distance, I observe it and try to understand it with a great passion.

Also, don’t expect me to use the word slum to refer to Rocinha - or any favela for that matter. It sure sticks to the definition but its way more than that : a favela is a “comunidade”, a community. It’s an unbelievable network, it’s a family, it’s a village. It’s solidarity at his best, it’s kids running around, music 24hours a day, mototaxi, vans, a labyrinth of alley-ways... and, indeed, some not so nice things. But we’ll talk about it later.

With the olympics and the world cup coming, Rio is trying to evolve and kill that image of insecurity it is carrying. In that way, I think that last semester, from october the 2nd, 2009 and on, was decisive. From the UPPs (Unidade de Policia Pacificadora) to the rain storm and its 300 victims, through the World Social Forum, the future of the favela is starting to make the news and is soon going to be an issue Rio’s government can’t avoid anymore.