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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
Homemyths of marginality

myths of marginality

*Highlight

‘My Father Entered the Drug Trade So I Could Become a Lawyer’ [OPINION]

By Joel Luiz Costa • Translation by Sarah Jacobs • January 17, 2019

Clique aqui para Português For the original article in Portuguese by Joel Luiz Costa published by The Intercept Brasil click here. I was born in Jacarezinho, a favela in Rio’s North Zone, and raised there by […]

*Highlight

Museums of Counternarratives and Resistance, Part 3: Maré Museum #MuseumWeek2018

By Gitanjali Patel • May 16, 2018

Clique aqui para Português This is the third article in a five-part series on community museums and resistance in Rio’s favelas in honor of Brazil’s 16th Annual Museum Week (May 16-20, 2018).  “Sure, there are people here who merit […]

*Highlight

Museums of Counternarratives and Resistance, Part 1: Brazilian Museums In Context

By Gitanjali Patel • May 14, 2018

Clique aqui para Português This is the first article in a five-part series on community museums and resistance in Rio’s favelas in honor of Brazil’s 16th Annual Museum Week (May 16-20, 2018). “History is the […]

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.
A Project of

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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