Archive for September, 2011
Re-writing the Future: An Interview with Neuza Nascimento
Sep 30th
Celebrating its 10th birthday last week, the Integrated Center in Support of Community Children and Teens (CIACAC) has grown into a community institution in Parque Jardim Beira Mar, a neighborhood within the Parada de Lucas favela, in Rio’s North Zone. Known for years of drug wars with neighboring Vigário Geral, Parada de Lucas had no alternative options for its children, until Neuza Nascimento, a mother and book-lover, at the time working cleaning homes, decided to take her son and some friends on a field trip one weekend to tease them away from the baile funk. That small act sparked Neuza to More >
Workshop Attempts to Infuse Participation into Rio’s Housing Plans
Sep 28th
The Rio de Janeiro City government, as represented by the Municipal Housing Secretary (SMH), has partnered with the Bento Rubião Human Rights Foundation (FBR), to organize a series of debates around Rio’s Municipal Housing and Social Interest Plan (Plano Municipal de Habitação de Interesse Social, or PMHIS). The series of five regional workshops and thematic seminars began on September 10th and are conducted weekly through October 15th, providing the public with opportunities to create and define strategies and actions with the stated purpose of advancing their living rights, as well as rights to the city, in the next fifteen years.
The Municipal Housing and More >
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Rocinha’s Rua 4: A Mixed Approach to Public Housing
Sep 27th
The government normally takes one of two approaches to its relationship with favelas in Rio de Janeiro: either favelas are a blight on the city and should be replaced, or they can be upgraded on-site. The first approach was popular in the 1960s, when the government began constructing conjuntos residenciais—public housing apartment complexes on government-owned land—to house favela residents displaced by eviction, natural disaster, or, as in the infamous case of Catacumba, arson. The early conjuntos often followed the Le Corbusier model of public housing: high rise residential blocks set in ostensibly green space, often in isolated locations.
This type of housing became More >
Solidarity vs. Individualism: The Power of Mutirão
Sep 26th
I have always been amazed by solidarity! To me, seeing people getting together to help each other, fight as a group instead of alone and be there for each other is the hope that the world can get better. Even in the presence of pain, disasters and wars, when there is solidarity, there is hope that in future things will improve, some good will come of it all. This feeling, combined with a passion for social causes and Latin America are what led me to Rio de Janeiro to undertake research on mutirão culture in the favelas. Mutirão is quite common More >
Dona Zélia, after the social clean-up: “It ended up looking like a Miami”
Sep 20th
“This is what you call a social clean-up. 68 families have been moved, the first and largest part of the community, so that they can build a pretty garden at the entrance of the condominium. It has ended up looking like Miami. When residents opened their eyes it was already too late. And now, once again, for no (good) reason, they are going to get rid of the rest.”
This outburst comes from Maria Zélia Carneiro Dazzi, President of the Association of Residents and Fishermen of the Vila Arroio Pavuna Community, in Rio’s West Zone. Descendent of the first inhabitants of More >
