{"id":63269,"date":"2020-12-23T12:11:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T15:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=63269"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:08:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:08:37","slug":"3rd-full-network-meet-up-part-3-launch-of-favela-museum-and-memory-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=63269","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Favelas’ 3rd Annual Meet-Up, Part 3: Launch of Favela Museum and Memory Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is the third article in a series covering the events of the 3rd Annual Full-Network Meet-Up<\/a>\u00a0of the Sustainable Favela Network, which happened online on November 7, 2020.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Sustainable Favela Network<\/a>\u00a0(SFN) is a project of Catalytic Communities (CatComm)* with the aim of building solidarity networks, increasing visibility, and developing joint activities that support the expansion of community-based initiatives that strengthen environmental sustainability and social resilience in favelas across the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. The project began with the 2012 film\u00a0Favela as a Sustainable Model<\/a>, followed in 2017 with the\u00a0mapping of sustainability initiatives<\/a>\u00a0in favelas across Rio. In 2018, the program organized local\u00a0exchanges<\/a>\u00a0between eight of the most well-established community programs, followed by the\u00a01st Annual Full-Network Meet-Up<\/a>, launching the SFN formally on November 10, 2018. In 2019, the program organized another round of exchanges\u2014this time open to all SFN members and to members of the public\u2014in five favelas in Rio de Janeiro. The activities carried out in 2019 culminated in the\u00a02nd Annual Full-Network Meet-Up<\/a>. In 2020, the SFN\u2019s Working Groups continued to meet\u2014online, due to the\u00a0coronavirus<\/a>\u00a0pandemic\u2014carrying out a range of activities such as rounds of support (rondas afetivas),\u00a0teach-ins<\/a>, seminars,\u00a0fundraising campaigns<\/a>, a\u00a0commitment letter<\/a>\u00a0for political candidates, and a\u00a0debate<\/a>\u00a0with mayoral candidates. To close the year, the Sustainable Favela Network held its 3rd Annual Full-Network Meet-Up, summarized below\u00a0and in this series<\/a>, with the aim of bringing the network together, promoting the mutual strengthening of relationships among socio-environmental organizers, evaluating the SFN\u2019s 2020 activities, and making plans for 2021.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n

Launch of the SFN’s Guide to Museums and Memories<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>The third activity of the Sustainable Favela Network<\/a>\u2019s 3rd Annual Full-Network Meet-Up was carried out by the Memory and Culture Working Group. Since 2019, the Working Group has been researching initiatives that seek to preserve and educate about memory in favelas and other peripheral territories of Rio de Janeiro.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The result of this effort was the launch of the Guide to Museums and Memories of the Sustainable Favela Network<\/a>. This guide<\/a> is the first of its kind and contains photos and information about 26 community museums<\/a> spread throughout Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding area. Its objective is to show the importance of collective memory<\/a> in the communities and to show how social museology<\/a> has the potential to be a unifying and democratic tool, helping strengthen the feeling of belonging to a territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no better shortcut to show the favela as a key part of the city than a community museum. Starting from the moment when a community establishes a museum, it leaves clear, for the whole world, that it values, that it recognizes the importance of its memory, and that it is deepening its feeling of belonging there,\u201d said Theresa Williamson, of Catalytic Communities, that moderated the Meet-Up and opened the Guide’s launch event.<\/span><\/p>\n

The preface, written by Maria da Penha<\/a>, co-founder of the Evictions Museum<\/a>\u00a0in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, introduces the collectively-written texts in the guide. Each memory project’s entry has a photograph, tagline, brief explanatory text, contact information, and address, in chronological order by the founding date of each project, due to the historic nature of a guide to memory. The creation of the Guide, according to Penha, leaves clear the reason why memory has such an important role in the lives of residents of favelas and peripheries: \u201cMemory cannot be evicted!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n