{"id":81081,"date":"2025-06-20T10:55:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T13:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=81081"},"modified":"2025-08-10T23:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T02:56:54","slug":"get-to-know-gaia-space-a-network-of-women-fighting-for-environmental-justice-and-obstetric-dignity-in-greater-rio-de-janeiro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=81081","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know ‘Gaia Space’, A Network of Women Fighting for Environmental Justice and Obstetric Dignity in Greater Rio de Janeiro"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The project began in 2022, under a tree in Complexo do Salgueiro, until a space was secured for activities with women in the community. Photo: Lorena Aguete<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/i><\/em><\/i><\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>This article is part of a\u00a0series<\/a>\u00a0created in partnership with the\u00a0Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies<\/a>\u00a0at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the\u00a0Digital Brazil Project<\/a>\u00a0on environmental justice in the favelas for\u00a0RioOnWatch.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region<\/a>, residents of favelas and peripheral areas in the municipality of S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo<\/a>\u2014located in the Leste Fluminense<\/a> region, across Guanabara Bay from Rio proper\u2014face precarious and challenging living conditions. Seeking to transform this reality, a group of women from Jardim Catarina<\/a>, Itaoca, and Complexo do Salgueiro<\/a> have been developing initiatives to promote environmental and climate justice<\/a>, gender literacy<\/a>, women\u2019s empowerment, and the creation of job<\/a> and income opportunities<\/a> for women in these favelas and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

Founder and executive director of the organization, Laura Torres shared that Gaia Space<\/a> currently supports 110 children and 80 women\u201415 of whom are pregnant. Laura is from the favela of Jardim Catarina, but has been working in neighboring Complexo do Salgueiro since 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaia Space is a place for empowerment and emancipation within Complexo do Salgueiro. It’s an organization made up of women from S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo.\u201d \u2014 Laura Torres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Among the initiatives already developed by Gaia Space are actions aimed at promoting women\u2019s participation in society, fostering gender literacy, ensuring food security<\/a> through a community garden<\/a> and an agroforestry<\/a> course, generating income opportunities with courses on braiding and ceramics, and producing data on environmental racism<\/a> and the impacts of climate change. One of Gaia Space’s efforts involves monitoring flood-prone areas<\/a> within Complexo do Salgueiro and informing residents through a messaging app group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe define ourselves as a civil society organization working with gender and climate. These are our two main causes. Within them, we understand it\u2019s essential to talk about race and class\u2014because we\u2019re inside a favela, in a sacrifice zone<\/a>, near what used to be a garbage dump. Most of the residents are women<\/a> and, obviously, they are Black, brown, and have had little access to education. And that also ends up affecting how much income they are able to generate.\u201d \u2014 Laura Torres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Torres, 50 of the women participating in Gaia Space’s projects live in the Itaoca favela, near the former garbage dump\u2014located between a road, Estrada de Itaoca, and the Fazenda dos Mineiros neighborhood, cutting through Complexo do Salgueiro. When the Itaoca dump was shut down in 2012, in accordance with the solid waste law<\/a>, the women from the area who worked as recyclable material collectors<\/a> were left with nowhere to go\u2014and no way to make a living.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t receive any compensation, unlike [the recyclable material collectors from] the Jardim Gramacho landfill<\/a>. There was no such compensation given, here in S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo. These people never saw a penny. And that ends up affecting everything that followed after the closing of the old dump\u2014there are social and economic consequences.\u201d \u2014 Laura Torres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many women from the Itaoca favela who are supported by Gaia Space were directly affected by the closure of the dump. One of them is Flaviele Souza Cruz, 32, a mother of four who lives with her family in Complexo do Salgueiro. She has been participating in Gaia Space projects since 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the only income we had. When the dump shut down, just like that, without [the government] offering any support to the people who worked there, we were left with no options. Nothing to rely on. So, to this day, many women still collect recyclable materials, try to get some cleaning work\u2026 But it\u2019s also hard to find a job these days, because the women who hire them don\u2019t want to register domestic workers formally.\u201d \u2014 Flaviele Cruz<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She mentioned that the closure of the Itaoca informal landfill also affected the health and food security of the former waste pickers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people used the money they made from the dump to buy medicine and food\u2014on top of what we actually got from there. I\u2019m not gonna lie and say we didn\u2019t eat things that came from the dump, because we did. We made use of a lot of food that was still good to eat.\u201d \u2014 Flaviele Cruz<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Laura<\/a>
Laura Torres leads a collective doula care workshop as a strategy to confront obstetric violence. Photo: Press release<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gaia Space was created, initially, to offer obstetric violence<\/span><\/a> awareness training to the local population. According to Torres, it was the first community project to work towards emancipation and break away from welfare assistance devoid of a grassroots approach. With time, its founders identified other community needs that had to be discussed and addressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d lay out a sarong under a tree and gather with people to talk about obstetric violence. A friend of mine had a few stools and we\u2019d sit in a circle to talk. After a year, more or less, we were able to establish our headquarters. We deal with everything, from domestic violence cases to people who have nothing to eat.\u201d \u2014 Laura Torres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In pursuit of its mission to promote rights in the community, the organization created the Keeping an Eye on Itaoca Observatory<\/a>. With support from local residents, the Observatory conducts research to map community needs, aiming to influence public policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, we published a report on socioenvironmental monitoring<\/a>. Fighting for public policies is much more tangible when you have data to back you up<\/a>.\u201d \u2014 Laura Torres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of the 42 households surveyed, 32 interviews were successfully recorded. Among the interviewees, 75% are women and 81.3% of them are Black. When it comes to sanitation<\/a>, 78.1% of those interviewed do not have access to piped sewage, and 92.9% of those without sewage treatment are Black. In addition, 28.1% of households do not have a toilet. As for water access, 75% of households either lack running water or the water available is not potable, and 78.1% rely on communal taps. With regard to waste, 90.6% of households burn their garbage due to the absence of municipal garbage collection services.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In Complexo do Salgueiro, some residents still have to carry water for domestic consumption in buckets and gallon jugs. Gaia Space also works at the intersection of climate, gender, and race. Photo: Press release<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additionally, the organization is developing a study on the care economy and environmental racism with 100 women\u2014including residents supported by Gaia Space and others living near the former Itaoca landfill\u2014in partnership with La Poderosa<\/a>, a civil society organization from Argentina. The idea for this monitoring effort came out of conversations with the pregnant women in the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a study to understand what life is like for the women who live in Complexo do Salgueiro, particularly when it comes to what we call the care economy\u2014those day to day tasks like looking after the house, the kids, the elderly, all of the responsibilities that almost always fall on women. We wanted to understand how the basic lack of infrastructure in the community\u2014like lack of water, trouble getting a spot in daycare, bad transportation, or transport that never even shows up\u2014upends their routines and messes with their mental and emotional health<\/a>.\u201d \u2014 Laura Torres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the findings from this new study reveals the difficulty of accessing public transportation, which can, in turn, make it harder for women to access health centers or for their children to get to daycare. According to Torres, 65% of the women interviewed said it takes them over 15 minutes on foot to reach the bus stop. Regarding transportation costs, fares can consume up to 25% of the income of those living in the area. Another problem is access to water: over half of the population faces water shortages and, of those affected, 80% are women. Among these women, almost 43% said they go out alone to fetch water.<\/p>\n

In addition to this initiative, Gaia Space is developing the Agenda to Resurrect S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo<\/a>. As a response to the United Nations\u2019 2030 Agenda\u2014which sets goals to ensure social and environmental justice for the global population by 2030\u2014the Agenda is part of a broader movement of 2030 Community Agendas that, according to Gaia Space, \u201ccollect each area’s real priorities, showing what needs to be done there, based on the lived experiences of those who build the everyday life of that place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developed in conjunction with other movements and collectives from S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo, the Agenda to Resurrect S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo brings together demands from the seven favelas that make up Complexo do Salgueiro\u2014ranging from sanitation and transportation to health, education, and climate justice\u2014to be delivered to the S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo City Council and City Hall in July of this year. The goal is to identify the gaps in access to basic rights and to propose new strategies to ensure those rights are fulfilled.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Ver essa foto no Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Uma publica\u00e7\u00e3o compartilhada por ASSOCIA\u00c7\u00c3O ESPA\u00c7O GAIA (@gaia.espaco)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n