{"id":21272,"date":"2015-04-08T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=21272"},"modified":"2017-05-01T15:23:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T18:23:33","slug":"movimento-preserva-laboriaux-wins-local-actions-prize-to-fund-ten-community-betterment-projects-in-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=21272","title":{"rendered":"Laboriaux Wins Local Actions Prize to Fund Ten Community Betterment Projects in 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A community group based in the neighborhood of Vila Laboriaux<\/a>, Rocinha<\/a>, won a prize awarded by the same government that once called for the removal of the community.<\/p>\n

Movimento Preserva Laboriaux<\/a>\u00a0(Movement to Preserve\u00a0Laboriaux) was named one of 85 winners of the City of Rio\u2019s Local Actions Prize<\/a>, part of Rio\u2019s 450th<\/sup> anniversary celebrations<\/a>. There were 828 applicants for the prize.<\/p>\n

Movimento Preserva Laboriaux promotes the sustainable development of Vila Laboriaux and its 600 families, living in an area of Rocinha that neighbors Tijuca Forest. It is coordinated by the NGO Favela Verde<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The organization has closely partnered with the community\u2019s Residents\u2019 Association, led by Jos\u00e9 Ricardo Duarte, elected by a large majority of voting residents in 2012. \u201cI think it\u2019s high time for some recognition from the City,\u201d says Ricardo, commenting on the prize. \u201cThe government needs to recognize small actions, to recognize initiatives led by the people. Because it\u2019s the people, in reality, that oftentimes\u00a0ends up doing the government\u2019s role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Laboriaux<\/a><\/p>\n

This is certainly the case in Vila Laboriaux, a community that was threatened with removal<\/a> by the City after landslides in 2010. Movimento Preserva Laboriaux is just one example of community action in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

From its first event\u2013a group clean-up of 1.5 tons of garbage<\/a>\u00a0that had been left to pile up in the community\u2013to today, it has worked in a participatory way, consulting and implementing resident priorities. Other activities organized by the group include urban art, community gardening, cultural activities and environmental education and preservation.<\/p>\n

\"Children's<\/a><\/p>\n

Gabriel Voto of Favela Verde<\/em>\u00a0describes how when he first visited the community, \u201cthe phantom of removal was very strong\u2026It was really bad, really heavy. We saw that lots of residents didn\u2019t paint their houses because they didn\u2019t expect to stay, they didn\u2019t know if they had a future there, if they would be removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But both Ricardo and Gabriel agree the difficulties that the community has faced have in some way contributed to what Gabriel calls the \u201csocial wealth\u201d of the neighborhood, as well as its obvious \u201cenvironmental wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Local Actions prize money will help fund ten events in 2015, which have already been agreed in community discussions.<\/p>\n

The first of these was Fala Mulher<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on March 28\u00a0\u2013 an event for women to get together and participate in discussions. The event included free beauty treatments provided by Embelleze<\/a>, and children\u2019s art activites provided by Escolinha de Arte Urbana<\/a>\u00a0(Little Urban Art School). \u201cWe see that there\u2019s an opportunity here to bring women closer to Movimento Preserva Laboriaux,\u201d Gabriel explains.<\/p>\n

\""Fala<\/a><\/p>\n

Aurini, a Laboriaux resident, was one of the many women who took part in the discussions and enjoyed a free manicure. \u201cI\u2019d like to see more events like this…I thought it was just for us to talk about things in the community. I thought that was it. But when I arrived I was surprised, I liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next on the list for Movimento Preserva Laboriaux will be a day of collective action, a mutir\u00e3o<\/a>, <\/em>to renovate\u00a0the new Residents\u2019 Association headquarters. They plan to turn the building into a social community center, to host activities and provide space for other organizations.<\/p>\n

The city government had promised the Association a new space after it allowed squatters to remain in the Association\u2019s previous headquarters. But the space offered was a dark basement, full of open sewage. \u201cThey promised a headquarters and gave us this space\u2026 It\u2019s so ridiculous that I can\u2019t explain it in words,\u201d says Ricardo. \u201cEverything is lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

But waiting for the City to clean up the building is not on the agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a scale of priorities that needs to be respected,\u201d says Ricardo, who refers to the Residents\u2019 Association\u2019s other demands, which include hillside containment, land regularization and improving the sewage and water systems<\/a>. \u201cIf we keep on arguing with the City over the headquarters, what will they do? Reform the building, to keep us quiet, making it more difficult for us to argue for the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an unusual situation: prize money from the City being used to fulfil a promise the City itself had made to the Residents\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n

Gabriel sees that the prize can have a galvanizing social force, as it is \u201cfurther proof that\u2026we don\u2019t need to wait for the government yet again to come and do what they promised to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among its other programs, Movimento Preserva Laboriaux is also\u00a0discussing and planning the creation of an environmental center in the community.<\/p>\n

\"List<\/a>
List of proposals suggested by Laboriaux residents, collected by Movimento Preserva Laboriaux in a discussion event in December 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas A community group based in the neighborhood of Vila Laboriaux, Rocinha, won a prize awarded by the same government that once called for the removal of the community. Movimento Preserva Laboriaux\u00a0(Movement […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":21273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1288,1290,1271,1284,1503,329,452,1329],"tags":[219,756,258,2411,272,182,188,348,2412,218,152,12,373,156,370],"writer":[1596],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-favelaqualities","11":"category-interviews-profiles","12":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","13":"category-solutions","14":"category-rio20","15":"category-by-international-observers","16":"tag-collective-action","17":"tag-community-organizing","18":"tag-community-solution","19":"tag-culture-secretariat","20":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","21":"tag-government-neglect","22":"tag-history","23":"tag-laboriaux","24":"tag-local-actions-prize","25":"tag-mutirao","26":"tag-participation","27":"tag-rocinha","28":"tag-sewerage","29":"tag-south-zone","30":"tag-water","31":"writer-sarah-jacobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=21272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}