{"id":24981,"date":"2015-10-31T10:53:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T13:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=24981"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:04:18","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:04:18","slug":"asa-branca-a-community-designedtolivetogether","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=24981","title":{"rendered":"Asa Branca, a Community #DesignedToLiveTogether"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The United Nations’ \u201cUrban October<\/a>\u201d closes\u00a0October 31st with the second annual World Cities Day. The day is designed to celebrate global urbanization, cooperation, and sustainable urban development. The UN’s newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> (SDGs) agenda for 2030 incorporates the\u00a0goal to make all cities and “human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.” Appropriately, this year World Cities Day is dedicated to the theme \u201cDesigned to live together,\u201d encouraging the development of socially cohesive cities, inclusive housing, job opportunities, and safe and healthy living environments. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon articulated: \u201cIn a world where over half the population lives in urban areas, the human future is largely an urban future. Our struggle for sustainable development will be won or lost in cities.\u201d Here in Rio de Janeiro, we pay tribute to World Cities Day by focusing on the particularly\u00a0inclusive\u00a0and well-planned\u00a0Asa Branca<\/a> favela in the West Zone<\/a> of Rio.<\/p>\n

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

Asa Branca, which translates to ‘White Wing’ in English, began as did all of Rio’s\u00a0favelas: an informal community founded\u00a0around work opportunities. The 35-year-old West Zone community is located where an orchard once stood, distant from and servicing\u00a0the central areas\u00a0of Rio. Workers came to work at Cimentex, a building supplies company, and, with no affordable housing options near their employer, settled the community. Today at approximately\u00a08,000 residents, Asa Branca still feels intimate. The community has never been occupied by\u00a0drug traffickers and local organizing has been a long-term constant\u00a0contributing to a sense of safety. Residents know their neighbors, welcome new members, and participate in community-organized classes and events. Asa Branca exemplifies<\/a> how favelas are\u00a0\u201cdesigned to live together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other community like ours,\u201d says Flavia Maria de Oliveira, a resident who has seen Asa Branca grow<\/a> from its beginnings. \u201cFor all the changes I have seen in my 30 years, it remains one of the friendliest and most welcoming places<\/a> to live.\u201d Flavia looks down the street, where potted plants line the sidewalk and a mother pushes a stroller, holding the hand of a toddler. \u201cIt\u2019s a very peaceful community because we\u2019ve never had a presence of drug trafficking. I\u2019ve raised a family here and can sleep with the doors unlocked at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Flavia\u2019s house sits on the same street as the Residents’ Association<\/a>, a sky-blue building revealing its purpose not only with an official government plaque but also with groups of people gathered out front. \u201cFor me, the best part of the community is right here,\u201d says Ney Wallace, a founder of the community. He sits on a bench in front of the Association, with about six boys gathered around chatting and laughing. \u201cWe can sit out front, have parties and meetings inside, and have classes for residents every day. There is always something going on here at the Association.\u201d The boys around him nod in support. \u201cThis building was made brick by brick by us residents, working together. I think I spend more time here at the Association than I do in my home!\u201d Wallace laughs.<\/p>\n

He goes on to discuss the beginnings of the community, of the orchard that turned into a lively neighborhood. \u201cIt was difficult because the community was once so small, but family after family began to move in. We evolved and expanded our space to accommodate new residents. We didn\u2019t have pavement\u00a0or lights, or running water. We had to collect our water from outside of the community.\u201d Wallace shares his nostalgia for the small community that Asa Branca once was, but also praises the evolution that made the community what\u00a0it\u00a0is today. \u201cIf you asked me if I could change Asa Branca or move to a new part, I would say no, I want to stay in the center of the community\u2014there is no better part!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community is special because we\u2019ve done everything ourselves in order to keep it\u00a0functioning,\u201d says Carlos Alberto Costa<\/a>, who is known in the community simply as “Bezerra.” A warm and enthusiastic man of about fifty, he holds the important position of President of the Residents’\u00a0Association. \u201cAsa Branca was founded because there wasn’t a government program at the time for housing<\/a>.\u00a0The government largely left us to our own struggles, to build\u00a0and provide for ourselves. We needed a sewer system, so we took a vote within the community and built it ourselves<\/a>. Every member of the community\u2014women, men, children\u2014was involved in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezerra\u2019s leadership<\/a> in Asa Branca has helped the favela become the inclusive and engaged community it is today. \u201cThe president of the Association has an obligation to bring better opportunities and results to the community,\u201d he says. Bezerra recognizes the power of education and brings language and educational classes to the Residents’\u00a0Association every day. \u201cWe have English and French\u00a0classes<\/a>, along with German and mathematics. On Thursday nights we have a theater class, and on Saturdays we have courses in photography, community journalism, and radio. Every class is taught by volunteers or partners and is open to anyone for free. The Association is always full because residents can get free wifi here as well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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

As president, Bezerra has deliberately\u00a0sought\u00a0ways to\u00a0extend the positive experiences\u00a0of a community designed to live together to incoming residents, including over 180 Haitian immigrants<\/a>. \u201cFor Haitians it\u2019s hard to be here [in Brazil],” says Dieuseul Duclosil, a Haitian resident of Asa Branca for just over a year. “We don\u2019t have a lot of power, so when someone like Bezerra opens the community to us and provides Portuguese courses to help our integration, we feel welcome.” Duclosil, who speaks French, Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, and English, approached Bezerra and told him that he would like to teach\u00a0English and French\u00a0classes<\/a>. \u201cWhen I told him this, Bezerra was extremely enthusiastic and within just two months, I was formally teaching classes every week at the Residents’\u00a0Association.\u201d Duclosil represents an influx of immigrants who left Haiti after the devastating earthquake in\u00a02010, looking to Brazil for work opportunities and a better life. \u201cI first arrived in Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil and stayed there for 3 years, but moved to Rio because the weather is similar to Haiti\u2019s,\u201d he says. \u201cI also came because the Olympic Games<\/a> offer better work opportunities for both construction projects and language.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Asa Branca is located just 800 meters from the construction site of the main Olympic Park, which has provided both work opportunities to residents of favelas as well as waves of evictions and removals. Residents of a neighboring favela, Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, continue their struggle to hold on to legally owned land, while Asa Branca has been largely spared due to its more distant\u00a0and out-of-sight location from the park. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a few removals here due to the construction of the TransCarioca Bus Rapid Transit<\/a> line on one side and the TransOl\u00edmpica BRT line on the other, but nothing existentially threatening,\u201d says Bezerra. \u201cFor the most part, it’s only 66 homes in the main area and 45 houses behind [that are\u00a0going to be removed], all to make room for the TransOl\u00edmpica BRT station,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cAs president, I discuss with residents what they want in this situation of removal. If they want to take the compensation money and move away, then great. If they want to stay, then I help negotiate with the government in order to find the best options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds of children playing soccer down the street fill the air, along with the scraping of plastic chairs as small shops and restaurants prepare for lunch. \u201cThese small shops and bars stay open until two or three in the morning,\u201d Flavia says. \u201cfamilies can gather and drink beers here, it’s very tranquil.\u201d Asa Branca continues to upgrade\u00a0and expand with its growing population, but does so in a welcoming and equitable way. It maintains the safe and inclusive living environment that it had as a small community while fostering diversity and social cohesion between different cultures and ethnicities. UN Habitat states\u00a0that \u201ccities designed to live together create opportunities, enable connection and interaction, and facilitate sustainable use of shared resources\u201d\u2014Asa Branca does just this. It is time that communities like Asa Branca are celebrated for their urban development, for their leadership, and for their modeling\u00a0social inclusion in a way we can all follow suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The United Nations’ \u201cUrban October\u201d closes\u00a0October 31st with the second annual World Cities Day. The day is designed to celebrate global urbanization, cooperation, and sustainable urban development. The UN’s newly adopted […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":24992,"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":[1854,1736,1290,1268,1271,329,452,1365,1329],"tags":[27,756,771,258,1461,1734,188,309,577,576,129,618,344,1292,152,373,1403,471,21,1867],"writer":[1664],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-housingwatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-favelaculture","11":"category-favelaqualities","12":"category-solutions","13":"category-rio20","14":"category-whats-a-favela-2","15":"category-by-international-observers","16":"tag-asa-branca","17":"tag-community-organizing","18":"tag-community-pride","19":"tag-community-solution","20":"tag-community-space","21":"tag-haiti","22":"tag-history","23":"tag-immigration","24":"tag-inclusion","25":"tag-integration","26":"tag-leadership","27":"tag-neighborhood-association","28":"tag-new-urbanism","29":"tag-organizing","30":"tag-participation","31":"tag-sewerage","32":"tag-solution","33":"tag-sustainability","34":"tag-west-zone","35":"tag-world-cities-day","36":"writer-julia-jones"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24981","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\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24981"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=24981"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=24981"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=24981"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=24981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}