{"id":58088,"date":"2020-03-08T00:42:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T03:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=58088"},"modified":"2020-10-01T17:19:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T20:19:09","slug":"this-womens-day-we-honor-the-women-who-are-transforming-waste-to-wonder-in-rio-de-janeiros-favelas-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=58088","title":{"rendered":"This Women’s Day, We Honor the Women Who Are Transforming Waste to Wonder in Rio Favelas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>This is the ninth article in a year-long partnership<\/a> with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies<\/a>\u00a0at San Diego State University to produce a\u00a0series<\/a> of monthly favela-sourced human rights and environmental justice reporting from Rio de Janeiro on RioOnWatch.<\/em><\/p>\n

On this International Women\u2019s Day, we pay homage to the women of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas that, on top of the work they do at home, also seek to make a difference in the world, promoting sustainability and preservation in the environments that surround them. Here, we’ve chosen to briefly present six women participants in the Working Group on Solid Waste, one of seven groups comprising Rio’s Sustainable Favela Network<\/a>.*<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Cris’ Zoraide Gomes \u2014 RecyclAction, Prazeres<\/b><\/h3>\n

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Cris dos Prazeres, as Zoraide Gomes is popularly known, is a resident of Morro das Prazeres<\/a>, a favela in Santa Teresa, Central Rio. She is one of the founders of the PROA Group<\/a> (Prevention Undertaken with Organization and Love) through which she implements the RecyclAction<\/a> project (ReciclA\u00e7\u00e3o). The project began after the 2010 catastrophe in which a landslide triggered in large part by trash accumulated<\/a> in pockets on the hill killed over 30 people<\/a>. With the goal of dealing with the build-up of uncollected trash<\/a> in the area and engaging residents in recycling activities through environmental education<\/a>, Cris and her partners created RecylAction. Residents deposit recyclable waste in 20 giant ecobags distributed throughout the community, and the material is then sent to the NGO and recycling entity EccoVida<\/a>, located in Hon\u00f3rio Gurgel<\/a>. The returns are then reinvested in educational programs. Aside from reducing landslide risk and waste, the project also improves residents\u2019 daily health, as areas with garbage accumulated on the street had become breeding grounds for diseases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through Grupo PROA, in addition to Cris and her colleagues developing workshops on the reuse of waste (for example, courses on how to transform leftover cooking oil into candles and soap, and coffee capsules into earrings) and conscious consumption of natural resources, recycling, and educational campaigns, they make numerous other initiatives possible in the community, ranging from HPV awareness<\/a> to computer programming classes<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want an example, you need to be an example. You need to show that you believe so that someone else will believe as well.” \u2014 Cris dos Prazeres<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ilaci de Oliveira \u2014 Transvida Cooperative, Vila Cruzeiro<\/b><\/h3>\n

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Ilaci de Oliveira is a resident of Vila Cruzeiro<\/a>, in Complexo da Penha<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s North Zone<\/a>, and founder-director of the Transvida Cooperative<\/a>. She has worked in diverse social projects for over 25 years, a life dedicated to the \u201cpoorest and most needy in Penha,\u201d she says. Transvida seeks not only to deal with the question of trash in the community and promote socio-environmental awareness, but also to transform the lives of residents through resocialization via income generation from waste collection. The cooperative has already managed to rescue a local square that was covered in garbage, returning it to resident use. Ilaci had the idea to form the cooperative when she saw a group of residents collecting trash in 2011. Since then, she has worked intensively to strengthen members of the cooperative and realize the community’s transformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to her work heading Transvida, Ilaci also works with literacy, after-school tutoring, and reading and crafts workshops for children and adolescents who accompanied the waste collectors. It was in this way that, out of her own home, she launched the Home of Dreams National Institute (Instituto Nacional Lar dos Sonhos).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo mobilize people it\u2019s important to listen to them, map out in the community who shows solidarity, and go to people\u2019s homes to meet them and talk in person.” \u2014 Ilaci de Oliveira<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Josefa Maria \u2014 Verdejar Socioambiental, Serra da Miseric\u00f3rdia<\/b><\/h3>\n

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Dona Josefa is an artisan and a volunteer with Verdejar<\/a>, a socio-environmental organization founded in 1997 to reforest the Serra da Miseric\u00f3rdia<\/a>, the largest wooded area in Rio’s underserved North Zone, on the edges of the Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a> favelas. The organization maintains a garden, holds environmental education workshops, and undertakes audiovisual projects. Dona Josefa holds workshops on how to reclaim cooking oil as soap and make handicrafts from reused materials (see photo above). She is also creating, in her own house, an EcoPoint, which will host workshops, recycling activities, and seedling distribution. The goal is not only to leave the community cleaner and more sustainable, but also to generate income for residents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe see so much material wasted. I don\u2019t see plastic, I don\u2019t see garbage. I see money wasted. Not just for me, but for the other residents. I want to pass along to them that there is a right destination to be given to these materials.” \u2014 Dona Josefa<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lidiane Santos \u2014 EcoNetwork, City of God<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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\nLidiane Santos is one of the coordinators of the EcoNetwork<\/a> (EcoRede) project, an initiative of the Alfazendo community-based organization in City of God<\/a>, in Rio’s West Zone. She has lived in the community since the age of five and, in 2017, received her Biological Sciences\u00a0degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ<\/a>), becoming a teacher. EcoNetwork is a project of Alfazendo<\/a>, an organization that, since 1998, holds literacy classes, a college entrance exam prep course, and other educational services for the residents of City of God. EcoNetwork, by comparison, focuses on collective solutions through participatory methodologies for environmental challenges faced by the community, seeking to promote health and improved quality of life for residents. This is done through environmental education, communication, continuing education, the professionalization of informal waste collectors, and local development.<\/p>\n

In addition to planting gardens in schools, promoting workshops for the creation of playground equipment with recycled material, and nutrition awareness, EcoNetwork also believes in the professionalization of informal waste collectors, which thus includes a training course, information on their rights and access to public services. The EcoNetwork also promotes habit change among residents with regard to discarding waste and the establishment of EcoPoints where proper trash disposal can occur. The EcoNetwork participated in the 2018 Sustainable Favela Network exchanges (click CC for subtitles in English):<\/p>\n