{"id":3301,"date":"2012-03-29T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=3301"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:08:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:08:22","slug":"favela-point-launches-strength-in-a-moment-of-uncertainty-for-providencia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=3301","title":{"rendered":"Favela Point Launches: Strength in a Moment of Uncertainty for Provid\u00eancia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"At the top of the Morro de Provid\u00eancia<\/a>\u00b4s yellow and green stairway, a newly bright blue building – completing the Brazil flag color scheme – houses Favela Point<\/a>, a brand new restaurant, bar and snack joint. Opened last week, Favela Point is already a victory for the seven women who developed the enterprise through Elas Social Foundation<\/a>\u00b4s \u00b4Elas em Movimento\u00b4 program to service residents and tourists alike.<\/p>\n

As one of the partners, 20 year old Ana Carla de Silva Chagas explains, “We\u00b4re operating to serve the community and tourists, because here at the top there\u00b4s nothing like this.”<\/p>\n

With support from the Elas em Movimento program, an initiative that trains then provides financial investment for women in pacified<\/a> communities to open their own businesses, the women did research within the community to identify the market and need. “We interviewed people asking what they thought about us opening this business and found out what was needed \u2013 somewhere for snacks, lunch, a bar. So we created [Favela Point] to function as a caf\u00e9, restaurant and bar, and we also do delivery,” says Ana Carla.<\/p>\n

\"\"Opening at 6am for fresh bread and breakfasts, offering Brazilian meals at lunchtime such as barbequed meat with rice, beans and salad and a range of pies, savoury snacks and a\u00e7ai sundaes throughout the day until closing at 11.30pm, the women offer a one stop refreshment space with homecooking and big smiles. The menu is largely traditional Brazilian fare with some fun twists, such the \u00b4Favela Mixes\u00b4 cocktail menu with chocolate cacha\u00e7a milkshakes, bacardi and juice and the baile classic: whisky and red bull.<\/p>\n

With menus in Portuguese and English, the women are looking to benefit from the increase in tourists to Brazil\u00b4s first favela<\/a>. “There are a lot of tourists who come to walk around and take photos,” says Ana Carla. “There are people practically every day.”<\/p>\n

The restaurant ideally located at the final stop of the gondola development<\/a> as part of the government\u00b4s Porto Maravilha<\/a> project, a Public-Private-Partnership to revitalize Rio\u00b4s Port Region. For the community of Provid\u00eancia the project is at once bringing development and infrastructure to the favela, while at the same time fracturing the community with forced evictions as residents’ houses are destroyed with little participation<\/a> and for\u00a0questionable projects<\/a>. Favela Point partner Janice dos Santos, 27, who has lived in Provid\u00eancia since she was a few months old, says “It\u00b4s difficult. A lot of our friends are leaving because their houses are going being destroyed. It\u00b4s hard, but we\u00b4re trying to put the ball forward.”<\/p>\n

Ela\u00b4s coordinator for entrepreneurship Eliana Maria Custodio who has been working with the group of women for over a year notes the women\u00b4s determination in the face of such developments. She says, \u00b4This is a community that\u00b4s going through a process of transformation that\u00b4s accompanied by exclusion. They\u00b4re destroying houses and removing families that have lived here for more than fifty years. This affects the community and people\u00b4s self-esteem and identity. It\u00b4s something that\u00b4s strengthened the women because they say “No, let\u00b4s create our own business and all work toward the same goal.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Eliana also highlights the importance of the investment in women to strengthen the community, saying “Women are agents of transformation in society. When you strengthen a woman inside her own community and family, the return she gives to her family is automatic. She offers healthier conditions for her family, she manages to break the cycle of domestic violence, she can better raise her children.” She goes on, “When you give women strength you transform the community. Working with and investing in a woman combats poverty, racism and sexism, especially here in Brazil.”<\/p>\n

Janice, who bubbles over with excitement and steely determination in equal measure, supports Eliana\u00b4s view: “We think that women are nothing. I understand that we have a woman President and senators, but here in the community people didn\u00b4t think we\u00b4d manage to go forward, just because we\u00b4re women from a community. [This project] has raised our self-esteem and the fight now is for us to stay here.”<\/p>\n

With plans for weekly Saturday night entertainment, a customer suggestion box and varied daily specials, the feisty group of women are looking to and indeed establishing a future, showing strength in a moment of uncertainty for Brazil\u00b4s oldest favela.<\/p>\n

Address: Favela Point, Ladeira de Barroso, 220, Morro de Provid\u00eancia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the top of the Morro de Provid\u00eancia\u00b4s yellow and green stairway, a newly bright blue building – completing the Brazil flag color scheme – houses Favela Point, a brand new restaurant, bar and snack […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3304,"comment_status":"open","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":[1736,1284,1334,329],"tags":[150,1261,168,109,445,11,436,129,15,148,146,144],"writer":[444],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-interviews-profiles","9":"category-reviews","10":"category-solutions","11":"tag-cable-car","12":"tag-central-rio","13":"tag-centro","14":"tag-community-business","15":"tag-entrepreneurship","16":"tag-forced-evictions","17":"tag-gender","18":"tag-leadership","19":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","20":"tag-port-region","21":"tag-porto-maravilha","22":"tag-morro-da-providencia","23":"writer-felicity-clarke"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81379,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions\/81379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=3301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}