{"id":32232,"date":"2016-11-17T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=32232"},"modified":"2016-12-22T13:01:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:01:39","slug":"favela-community-solutions-fill-the-gaps-in-rios-educational-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=32232","title":{"rendered":"Favela Community NGOs Fill the Gaps in Rio’s Educational System"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cYou aren\u2019t from the favela. You\u2019re from the world,\u201d Iara Oliveira<\/a>, founder of the Alfazendo NGO, tells her students. Alfazendo<\/a> is an educational NGO based in the\u00a0City of God<\/a>\u00a0favela in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s West Zone<\/a>. Frustrated over the state of education<\/a> in her community, Oliveira and a small group of City of God residents founded Alfazendo in 1998 to improve literacy and tutor students for the college entrance exam. \u201cWe were young people that wanted other solutions,\u201d she says. Efforts like Alfazendo\u2019s represent an important element\u00a0of the education system in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Literacy and attendance rates have risen in the past few years, in part thanks to communities\u00a0creating solutions<\/a>\u00a0to address persisting problems and gaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lack of schools makes attendance challenging in some favelas. Rio das Pedras<\/a>\u00a0is the third largest single favela in Rio\u00a0with a population of over 50,000. Yet the community has only two public elementary schools to serve the students there. In 2016, completing school through the high school level became obligatory<\/a> by law, but some favelas don\u2019t have high schools in\u00a0the community. Students must travel\u00a0elsewhere to complete\u00a0their high school\u00a0education. Rio das Pedras has one public high school; Mar\u00e9<\/a> in the North Zone<\/a>\u00a0has none. City of God had a similar lack of high schools until recently. \u201cWe spent 40 years fighting to get a high school inside City of God. We got the school. We got a place for the school. We got the government to start the work,\u201d said\u00a0Oliveira. However, the work is no longer in progress due to the current political situation in Brazil, according to Oliveira.<\/p>\n

Oliveira expresses concerns that in the favela’s school the curriculum is outdated and not engaging and that teaching methods haven’t evolved. According to Oliveira, teaching methods have remained the same since she was a child and are very \u201ctraditional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another concern is teacher quality<\/a>, especially in regards to preparation. \u201cThey aren\u2019t prepared to face the reality,\u201d says Oliveira. Another problem is that teaching in a school may be the first time that a teacher enters a favela. \u201cYou have teachers who are from the community that are more engaged\u2013they fight more [on behalf of students]. We have teachers in these schools that are from outside. They come only to give the class and leave,\u201d says Oliveira. \u201cThey come only because it\u2019s a public post.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alfazendo seeks to offer solutions to some of these challenges. In addition to the original tutoring and literacy services, it also provides 50-minute \u201csocio-environmental\u201d courses\u00a0through its\u00a0Eco Network<\/a>\u00a0program. Eco Network<\/a>\u00a0reaches 7,000 students in 28 schools and educational institutions. It has a branch in the North Zone’s Mar\u00e9 favela administered through CEASM<\/a> (Mar\u00e9 Center of Solidarity Studies and Actions). Older students in the community act as “agents” and work with Eco Network’s\u00a0staff to provide\u00a0classes.<\/p>\n

Fernanda M\u00fcller and Lucas de Sousa both grew up in City of God and are co-coordinators of the Eco Network\u00a0project. While Eco Network\u00a0explores one thematic unit per academic year, they field questions from students as they arise. Such topics can include sexuality, crime, violence<\/a>, and family matters. \u201cIt\u2019s spontaneous,\u201d says de Sousa.<\/p>\n

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

Special needs present a significant challenge and gap in the education system in favelas. In Rio das Pedras, students with special needs engage with the community in Jacarepagu\u00e1 where they receive physical therapy and counseling. The Claudio Besserman Vianna Bussunda school in Rio das Pedras has 50 students with special needs and only two aides. A lack of psychologists and paraprofessionals on the school staff means that special needs students attend classes without any specialized support, an added challenge for teachers who may not feel prepared to work with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t educate teachers to be able to work with a child the way they arrive,\u201d says Oliveira. A small number of schools specialize in students with special needs, but cuts to education have made it harder for schools to work with those students. Oliveira explains, \u201cThe City should have specialists inside the school. Before you had an interdisciplinary body in the school. You had the social worker, the educational psychologist, psychologist, and teachers. Now you don\u2019t anymore. Now you just have teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just professional staff that\u2019s missing from schools. Schools no longer have funding for the grounds staff that monitor the school and guard the entrance. \u201cThe government took the grounds staff. Now we don\u2019t have a doorman,\u201d says Maria Aparecida Rocha de Camargo, coordinator at the Claudio Besserman Vianna Bussunda school. This presents\u00a0a safety issue, as students can leave the school without permission. In Rio das Pedras, community members are stepping up to fill in for the staff as volunteers but de Camargo worries what would happen in an emergency situation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A poster at the Claudio Besserman Vianna Bussunda school in Rio das Pedras, expressing\u00a0what students want to see in their city.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another time community members stepped in to solve the school\u2019s resource problem by donating toilet paper. The lack of material resources and funding is hard for educational professionals to accept in the face of massive investments<\/a> in mega-events<\/a>, like the Olympics<\/a>, even after Rio de Janeiro\u2019s state government declared a \u201cstate of calamity<\/a>\u201d in June.<\/p>\n

All favelas are not the same, especially in terms of security<\/a> and violence, which can affect education. City of God has a\u00a0Pacifying Police Unit<\/a>\u00a0(UPP), as does\u00a0Rocinha<\/a>, a favela in Rio\u2019s South Zone<\/a> and also the largest favela in the city. Despite the UPP, violence continues to be an issue in the community. In City of God, it is not unusual for schools to close because of conflict.<\/p>\n

The NGO\u00a0Rocinha Mundo da Arte<\/a>\u00a0provides a space for children to go after school to play, draw, do activities\u2014to be safe. Every weekday from 2pm to 6 pm the door to Mundo da Arte is open for any child to come and go, meaning students who attend morning or after school sessions are able to participate. \u201cMy father started the organization to take kids off of the street,\u201d says Iris Santos who now coordinates Mundo da Arte. She says the hope of the organization is to \u201ctake kids off the street so they have a place to learn and play safely.\u201d The organization accepts any school-age student who is interested in art. Art, according to the group, is a tool to \u201cshow other social and intellectual possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Mundo da Arte also provides extra tutoring for students who struggle with\u00a0learning. Santos says that teachers can be unmotivated and need to be \u201ctrained more\u201d to teach students better. She blames a lack of funds in public schools for these problems. \u201cI\u2019d like for schools to invest more in libraries, sports, and healthy food for the students,\u201d she says. She explains\u00a0that the children are what sustains her in her job, despite the hour-and-a-half commute she experiences daily after moving to Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/a>. \u201cMy dedication is to the children, [so] that they have more creativity and curiosity to learn,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The community efforts to solve the problems that persist in the education system are many. However, even if a student does manage to overcome the challenges, the result can in turn become a problem for the community when brain drain occurs. \u201cYou have a lot of movement out [of the community]. You have migration,\u201d according to Oliveira. She described students as thinking, \u201cI\u2019m going to graduate and I\u2019m leaving\u2026 I\u2019m going to find a job and I\u2019m going to leave here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alfazendo hopes to combat that thought process by motivating students to stay in the community and contribute to City of God\u2019s development. Oliveira\u00a0says, \u201cI would say that I want the children of City of God\u2013or anywhere\u2013to have the same opportunities that I had\u2013I have a network of friends and people that helped me get to where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Common misperceptions and stigma<\/a> around favelas usually focus on drug trafficking<\/a>, crime, and violence, rather than the historic neglect and exclusion by the government. Education represents an important area where favelas are combating that neglect by creating their own solutions and working to improve their communities.<\/p>\n

Contributions to Alfazendo and Eco Rede can be made by emailing\u00a0ecorede@yahoo.com.br<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contributions to Rocinha Mundo da Arte can be made by contacting Iris Santos at\u00a0iris07_santos@icloud.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Raven Hayes is a graduate student in the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on educational development and the intersection of schools, poverty, and community.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas \u201cYou aren\u2019t from the favela. You\u2019re from the world,\u201d Iara Oliveira, founder of the Alfazendo NGO, tells her students. Alfazendo is an educational NGO based in the\u00a0City of God\u00a0favela in Rio […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":22782,"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":[1290,1271,1503,1463,335,329,1329],"tags":[1448,1361,9,2108,231,756,258,280,397,1259,37,5,15,1019,1445,12,1403,156,453,363,21],"writer":[2110],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-civilsociety","8":"category-favelaqualities","9":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","10":"category-perceptions","11":"category-policies","12":"category-solutions","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-favelasareassets","15":"tag-endfavelastigma","16":"tag-9","17":"tag-ceasm","18":"tag-city-of-god","19":"tag-community-organizing","20":"tag-community-solution","21":"tag-complexo-da-mare","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-mega-events","24":"tag-north-zone","25":"tag-olympics","26":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","27":"tag-right-to-education","28":"tag-rio-das-pedras","29":"tag-rocinha","30":"tag-solution","31":"tag-south-zone","32":"tag-stigma","33":"tag-vidigal","34":"tag-west-zone","35":"writer-raven-hayes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32232","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\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32232"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=32232"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=32232"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=32232"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=32232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}