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Latest News
  • [ June 20, 2025 ] Get to Know ‘Gaia Space’, A Network of Women Fighting for Environmental Justice and Obstetric Dignity in Greater Rio de Janeiro by Community Contributors
  • [ June 10, 2025 ] Groundbreaking Oral History Project—‘Favela Climate Memory’—Launches Final Exhibition, Fostering Emotional Connection Between Climate, Nature and Community [Video] *Highlight
  • [ June 7, 2025 ] ‘Being a Black Woman Running a Museum Means Facing the Past, Eye to Eye… It’s Reparation in Motion’: Sinara Rúbia’s Full Speech at Brazil’s 1st Seminar on Anti-Racist Museums *Highlight
  • [ June 5, 2025 ] ‘A Museology That Doesn’t Serve Life Serves No Purpose’: ‘Unconventional’ Favela Museums Lead First Seminar of Rio de Janeiro’s Social Museology Network *Highlight
  • [ June 2, 2025 ] A Product of the 2016 Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro the ‘Evictions Museum’ Unveils New Walking Tour, Reigniting Vila Autódromo’s History and Resistance [IMAGES] #EvictionsWatch
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With the popularization of online games in Brazil, representation has become increasingly pressing and so has racism. Illustration: Momo Pixels
#MediaWatch

Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas: 2021 [EDITORIAL]

By RioOnWatch Editorial • April 30, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This is the latest contribution to our media watchdog series on the Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio’s favelas, part of RioOnWatch’s ongoing conversation on the media narrative and media portrayal surrounding favelas. Introduction to the […]

Photo: Léo Lima/Cafuné na Laje.
*Highlight

Jacarezinho: A History of the Blackest Favela in Rio de Janeiro

By William Reis • Translation by Cormac Whitney Low • June 21, 2021

Clique aqui para Português For the original article by William Reis, Coordinator of AfroReggae, in Veja Rio, click here. The Getúlio Vargas family estate, industrial development of Rio, route for Afro-Brazilians escaping slavery and Tia […]

*Highlight

2019 Report Shows Rising Armed Violence in Complexo da Maré, Continued State Impunity

By Nadine Terasa, Pauline Beaumont • February 19, 2020

Clique aqui para Português The 16 favelas that make up Complexo da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone, registered 49 deaths resulting from armed violence in 2019, more than double the rate of 2018. […]

#MediaWatch

In Three Months, Rio de Janeiro Print Media Published 80 Negative Cover Stories About Favelas

By Michel Silva • Translation by Ben Bildsten • November 6, 2019

Clique aqui para Português For the original article in Portuguese by Michel Silva published in Favela em Pauta click here. No one buys print newspapers anymore because they only print bad news. This assertion makes […]

*Highlight

Hunger Is a Feminine Noun, Part 2: Greater Rio’s Japeri Municipality in Chaos

By Elvira Lobato • Translation by Tara Mittelberg • July 5, 2019

Clique aqui para Português For the original article in Portuguese by Elvira Lobato published by Agência Pública click here for the series and here for the article. Angelina Nunes and Claudia Lima contributed reporting. Photographs […]

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RioOnWatch’s anti-racist reporting series won silver in the 2022 inaugural The Anthem Awards, in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category among Best Local Awareness Programs.
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About

In May 2010, Catalytic Communities launched what was originally Rio Olympics Neighborhood Watch (hence RioOnWatch), a program to bring visibility to favela community voices in the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. This news site, RioOnWatch.org, grew into a much-needed and unique reference featuring favela perspectives on the urban transformation of Rio. With diverse and deeply interlinked articles by a mix of community reporters, resident opinions, solidarity reporters, international observers, and academic researchers, we work to engender a more accurate picture of favelas, their contributions to the city, and the potential of favela-led community development in Rio and around the world.

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Awards

Special Thanks

Fundação Heinrich Böll Brasil
World Habitat
Fideicomiso de la Tierra Caño Martín Peña
Pastoral de Favelas
Center for CLT Innovation
Global Land Alliance
Ecocity Builders
Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
SDSU Behner Stiefel Center
The Rio Times
Forum Grita Baixada
Beto Paixão Graphic Design
Architecture Museum of Vienna
Yale School of Architecture

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  • Organizing
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  • Content Map
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