Solutions Blog
Where Do You Get Your News? Announcing: RioOnWatchWhen you see a headline like this one from BBC this week, do you ever wonder what the news would sound like if the community reported it? Are you curious what the “slums” think? And what if their voices were easy to find, so you could just “double check” their perspective when you see a headline such as this?
Earlier this month, Catalytic Communities (CatComm) launched www.RioOnWatch.org (Rio Olympics Neighborhood Watch), a news website for community reporting from Rio’s favelas, in English, in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympic Games. Over the coming months we will be featuring community commentary and journalism, as well as guest comments from prominent NGOs, public defenders and journalists who work to increase community participation. During CatComm’s monthly social media trainings for community leaders from across the city of Rio, grassroots leaders are trained to write and post content atwww.favela.info, the Portuguese site we launched in June and which will feed RioOnWatch.org. They are also setting up their own news blogs, video channels, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. We will be organizing and making this information available over the coming year.
But to get there we need your help!
We’ve now raised $4100 through our Rio Raffle 2010. But we need your help to reach $5000 in raffle tickets by Sunday, so we can reach our goal and train 200 community leaders from across Rio by December.
Remember, August 1st is the deadline to enter CatComm’s Rio Raffle. Thanks to a mileage donation, for just $10 you’ll compete for a trip for 2 to visit us in Rio de Janeiro, including flight and Bed & Breakfast in Ipanema, Rio’s premiere beach neighborhood. Check out photos of Ipanema here. And learn more about why Rio is an exciting place to be right now through the lens of Tiago Donato, our Policy Intern.
So don’t delay! BUY YOUR $10 RAFFLE TICKET NOW and get your name thrown in the hat! We’ll announce the winner on Monday August 2nd. And if you spread the word, we’ll throw your name in the hat one more time for every 2 tickets bought by your friends.
Thank you, everyone, for participating!
Please take a moment, and $10, to help us hit our target,
Theresa Williamson
Founder & Executive Director, Catalytic Communities, www.catcomm.org
Michael Jackson statue helps pave road between slum and asphalt, by Tiago Donato
If you never fancied the big Art Deco Jesus Christ statue on top of Rio’s Corcovado hill, and were not the beach type either, perhaps you might have argued having no reason to come to Rio, but that niche has just narrowed recently, as a bronze-cast Michael Jackson statue was just unveiled on Morro Santa Marta.
The statue commemorates
the late King of Pop’s visit in 1995 when he was present for the recording of “They Don’t Care About Us”. It was placed on the very concrete slab where Michael Jackson danced in front of hundreds of residents, for a scene in the video, along with a mosaic by Brazilian artist Romero Britto. The video was the subject of much controversy, as some Brazilian officials were displeased with the potential international exposure of the country’s urban and regional inequalities, which they thought could hurt the city’s chances of winning their bid to host the 2004 Olympics (not the last time officials have held the Olympic Games higher than the social well-being of the population). It was alleged, also, that the producer Spike Lee had to negotiate with drug traffickers that controlled the community of Santa Marta at the time, to ensure Michael Jackson’s safety. The track was also the subject of more controversy in the US, where a second version of the video, which focused on the American incarcerated population, was banned from daytime airplay due to the violent footage in it.
In 2009 the track’s timely use, only days before Michael’s death, in a video denouncing the Iranian elections, brought over 30,000 views within days. Coincidentally, it is this video that CatComm uses to highlight the power and simplicity of social media in our social media course for grassroots leaders from across Rio.
As you may already know, Morro Santa Marta’s is not the only instance of a Michael Jackson statue, the first having been a 3000-year old bust, crafted by the ancient egyptians, though the legitimacy of that claim may be disputed. Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, thousands protest as officials give the go-ahead to the installment of a life-sized bronze statue of Michael Jackson on the grounds of one of his mega-concerts in 1996 in the capital Prague.
We at Catalytic Communities find the novelty exciting, as it amounts to one of Rio’s attractions, being located inside a favela (slum). The King of Pop is so well-liked that even Rio’s middle class families who have never set foot inside one of the city’s favelas may begin visiting this one (out of thousands) of poor neighborhoods that exist in their backyards. Even moreso now that a furnicular tram has been implemented on the hillside, along with green roofs and improved day care facilities, and a new policing strategy has successfully begun driving violent organized crime out of some of Rio’s favelas, of which Santa Marta was the first and the model (see the city-wide project’s own English-language website here).
In Cantagalo, a favela in Ipanema where community policing was implemented last November, the State has just launched an elevator which not only reduces residents’ need to climb endless steps past a dump, but which integrates the community with the Metro system, bureaucracy-alleviation services and several playgrounds. The State is also giving all residents title to their land and providing public housing within the community to residents who were moved in order to urbanize the neighborhood.
Our hope is that officials will continue to favour marginalized parts of the city with such projects, but never overlooking the inequality and social rifts that exist particularly in more distant parts of Rio, where the population’s most basic needs are still not covered by the State and the risk of forced evictions is very real. In terms of the social divide, however, a welcome approach is to boost interest in some areas overlooked by so-called formal society with such cultural landmarks as this, the Michael Jackson statue that many are itching to go look at.
For those of you whose wish to visit Rio is spurred beyond breaking point by this new addition, airfare may remain a concrete obstacle to experiencing at all beyond this article the tremendous wealth of superstar idolatry and socio-economic conundrums that Rio has to offer, not to mention the beaches and amazing natural landscapes in the middle of a big city. Luckily, we at Catalytic Communities offer, through a fundraising project made possible by a kind donation of air miles, the chance to win 2 free tickets and a free stay near Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro through a minimum donation of 10 US Dollars. The funds raised will ensure we continue training Rio’s community leaders in social media, helping them communicate their perspectives and causes to and with society at large through new media and other IT tools.
The pair that wins the free ride will get to stay at the Gaia Inn Bed & Breakfast (which doubles as our director’s home), with the very real possibility of visits to both Michael Jackson’s and Jesus Christ’s statue. They will also get to have chats and certainly coffee or tea and perhaps sesame seed crackers with hummus together with the jolly CatComm team, who are available for long-lasting friendships too, with little to no gratitude required. So click over here and play for 10 bucks a shot. We’ll be happy to hear from you.
*Tiago Donato is Catalytic Communities’ Policy Intern. He wants to make the world a better place, and he is starting with the man in the mirror.
RIO RAFFLE 2010 is ON!
Win a Trip to Rio by Helping CatComm!
Catalytic Communities is running a raffle for a FREE TRIP FOR 2 TO VISIT US IN RIO!*
Every $10 you contribute by August 1st wins you an entry. $50 buys you 5 entires. $500 buys 50! Proceeds go to training at-risk communities in social media and developing a tailored online curriculum in social media for communities across Brazil and Africa.
Please take a moment to DONATE TODAY.
And, thanks to a donation from Putumayo World Music, 25 of you will receive a copy of “Brazilian Café!”
Winners will be announced on August 2nd.
*Air travel, bed & breakfast and community visits included for up to 6 nights. Award made possible thanks to mileage donations from our supporters.
CatComm Social Media Course in Full Effect, by Milena Flament*
This Tuesday we concluded our first intensive social media course for community leaders in Rio de Janeiro. The objective of the course “Strategic Use of the Most Recent Virtual Communication Tools,” is to build capacity for community leaders to advance their own grassroots organizations and causes and represent points of view that traditional media outlets ignore. Community leaders from across the city are learning how to produce stories and video, publish them online, then develop networks to disseminate this information. They are now networked users of Twitter, Facebook and WiserEarth. They have learned how to make, edit, and share videos using MovieMaker, YouTube and Vimeo. And, on top of learning how to create personal blogs, our students contribute to favela.info, a collective blog we’ve developed to reflect voices from across Rio’s civil society.
Being the first of its kind in Brazil, our social media course is in high demand. We received almost 100 applications from over 40 communities for only 20 spots. Community leaders from the states of São Paulo, Amazônia, Bahia, and Pernambuco also contacted us requesting placement. Grassroots leaders in our network from as far as Kenya and Nigeria showed interest in participating! To cater to leaders outside of Rio de Janeiro, a São Paulo-based group is helping design an online version of the course. To accommodate local interest, CatComm will offer two sessions of the course in June, thereby training 50 community leaders that month.
By the end of the year we will have trained 200 community leaders in social media, allowing them to make maximum use of the latest online tools in both communicating to the world their community initiatives and communicating what’s going on in the neighborhoods. That is, in addition to training individual community leaders to use social media to support their local programs, we are helping them use social media collectively to impact how they are perceived, how knowledge is shared, and how their communities are treated in future.
This inaugural month we have had an extremely diverse group of 24 students representing 14 communities and 16 organizations (see map). Among the students, we have Jane Nascimento, director of Vila Autódromo’s Neighborhood Association. She wanted to take CatComm’s social media course in hopes of changing the fate of her community, which is scheduled for eviction in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games. Luciano and Maristela, from Morro da Coroa, whose brother was shot dead by the police, want to use social media to expose police negligence in the killing of ordinary citizens. Paulo, IT Manager for community radio station Núcleo Barreto, wants to expand his means of communication to reach a wider audience.
After a one-month course, our students have already become grassroots journalists. Thanks to our collective blog in Portuguese, favela.info, soon to be launched in English, stories and opinions of local leaders in Rio de Janeiro are made available for the general public in Brazil and around the world.
The 4-session course takes place once a week for three hours in Fundição Progresso thanks to a partnership with the Committee for the Democratization of Information Technology (CDI), in downtown Rio and includes background and step-by-step training in blogging (Blogger and Word Press), social networks (Twitter, Facebook, and WiserEarth), and video production (MovieMaker, YouTube, Vimeo). Additional modules include advanced trainings in organizing, fundraising, video, and community journalism tools. The class was developed in-house by CatComm staff with input from social media experts.
The course has been featured in a host of Brazilian blogs and newssites, including Portal do Aprendiz, Observatório das Favelas, VivaFavela, FavelaDaRocinha.com, and Blog das Redes.
Check out photos of course participants here. And their public evaluations here.
*Milena Flament is CatComm’s Development Intern. Chilean-American, Milena has 2 years experience in Brazil. She will be heading back to the US for her MBA later in 2010.
A Little Love Makes a Big Impact, by Danny Burns*
I started volunteering at Acari favela in the North Zone of the city of Rio. I went there when Catalytic Communities put me in touch with a program to help keep kids safe and off the streets. In Brazil some children go to classes in the early mornings and others go to school later in the day, the program was started to give the children another option when they were not attending classes. The program is run out of a small room above a church and it is known to everyone in the community as Escolinha do Amor, or Little School of Love.
I was very excited and happy to work with the students because of the positive impact this program has been having on the community.
Life in Brazil and in particular the community of Acari is very different than what I am used to in America. AK47s are a daily sight and it is not uncommon to hear of people shooting at, and getting shot by police. One day, for example, I was walking to the program headquarters and I could sense that there was unusual tension and stress in the air as I walked through the neighborhood. It wasn’t the same big guns that I saw being carried, yet small more versatile guns. I had come to the conclusion some time ago that hand guns were a sign that meant trouble. Because of the increased tensions on the street, the teachers held me at school the whole day, and children were unable to play outside. At the end of the day, I was escorted by a teacher to the metro. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was able to escape, when the kids had to stay and live in this situation.
That experience made me realize how vital a program like Escolinha do Amor is, and how strong the community members are. Living in such conditions may seem overwhelming and daunting, however, these teachers believe that something can be better. This program gives the children an opportunity to escape from everyday reality and enter a house that is truly filled with love. I feel so privileged that I have had the opportunity to work with these dedicated teachers and amazing children.
Mother Teresa may have said it best, “We cannot do great things on this Earth. We can only do small things with great love.” This program may be small, but the positive change it is having on these children’s lives cannot be measured.
*Danny Burns graduated from Bowling Green in 2008 and followed that up by spending 6 months in Brazil from 2009-2010. He volunteered with Catalytic Communities and at the Little School of Love from February-May 2010 and is now off to join the Peace Corps in Central Asia.
CatComm brings WiserEarth, the international sustainability network, to Portuguese!
WiserEarth.org, a nonprofit that offers social networking for the international sustainability movement, launched its site today in Portuguese beta version. This effort was realized thanks to CatComm’s dedicated group of volunteer translators. THANK YOU Cristina, Tiago, Janaina, Tatiana, Fernanda and Ana Paula for leading this effort!
Many have been asking WiserEarth for the site in their own language. Here at Catalytic Communities, over 8 months we transferred our entire Community Solutions Database to WiserEarth’s solutions platform as a way of dramatically increasing exposure of our community network’s solutions, while saving ourselves valuable time and resources in terms of developing and maintaining our own database. We hope other solution-compilation organizations will follow suit. At the same time, we put our wonderful network of volunteer translators to work translating WiserEarth’s functionality as a whole to Portuguese. For we saw in Wiser an incredible opportunity to broaden the reach and networks of our community partners. Today, our entire network, and many beyond, will benefit from this investment. WiserEarth in Portuguese will allow a growing movement of people concerned with similar issues — social and environmental — to connect with one another across the world.
Portuguese speakers can now connect with like-minded people on WiserEarth, set up their own groups, and search easily for information in the expansive directory.
WiserEarth offers a free and ad-free network to a vibrant member base of 37,000+ people from 231 countries, regions and territories. It is an innovative alternative to commercial social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut, and contains over 2,000 member-created groups and 110,000 organizations in its directory.
The site was launched three years ago on Earth Day by environmentalist, writer and visionary, Paul Hawken. WiserEarth has stood the test of time and become a valuable resource for activists, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and changemakers working towards a just and sustainable world.
“I knew that if we could understand the connections and visualize the breadth of global efforts on behalf of social and environmental justice, we would recognize the largest movement the world has ever seen. WiserEarth is where this movement can begin to see itself.”
- Paul Hawken, Founder, WiserEarth
“After working 9 years with grassroots communities on-the-ground in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, supporting their hard work to grow networks and share the good they do in their communities with a growing audience through the Web, Catalytic Communities was thrilled to discover WiserEarth and WiserEarth Solutions. We then began to use the Groups function and grew even more impressed with this user-friendly tool that allows civil society to organize separately, but jointly under one ‘roof,’ where we can access one another and connect to each other’s knowledge. We became convinced that these tools must be made available to the urban squatter communities with whom we work in Rio de Janeiro and the indigenous communities we are increasingly involved with in the Amazon.”
- Theresa Williamson, Founder, Catalytic Communities
Visit WiserEarth in Portuguese: pt.wiserearth.org
Join the CatComm Group: www.wiserearth.org/groups/catcomm
Leveraging Local Assets for Strategic Local Development, by Tiago Donato
A record of one training session at the World Urban Forum 5 in March 2010, in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
This session was promoted by the Weitz Center for Development Studies, an Israeli organization whose focus is to foster sustainable growth everywhere in the world through sharing their experience and technical knowledge. The stated goals were: one, to understand the assets-based approach (as opposed to a problem solving mode) to local development; two, to learn how to create and implement the governance structures and organizational platforms in local government for promoting local development (going beyond the mission of service provision); and three, to have participants create a draft working model for establishing an MSPU (Municipal Strategic Planning Unit) based on their local context and assets. During this event, we were joined by representatives and consultants from MASHAV (Israel’s agency for international development cooperation), the Weitz Center, and also by Sam Okello, the Mayor of Kisumu, in Kenya, and some of his staff, who have a positive experience to relate about their city. Following their establishment of an MSPU, Kisumu has recently been able to lure in investments totaling 40 million Euros (about 54 million US dollars) to their city of around one million inhabitants.
The biggest challenge is the implementation of the local mechanisms necessary to carry out a strategic plan through an MSPU. Cooperation from Central Government is needed to establish the MSPU’s ability to mobilize government institutions and the continuation of its work through the terms in office of different mayors of different political affiliations. Any structure that is already in place for long-term strategic planning at the municipal level can be used in partnership with local unions, business associations and other organizations who participate in the city’s economy at different levels, and whatever structure that is missing can be created and developed as the first part of the mission. But most importantly, an MSPU needs to comprise all stakeholders in the area, in order to generate the political will and leverage to implement the plans.
But the lesson we all could grasp quite cleanly from the session was a more ethereal one: to take an assets-based approach to your local development. It means to observe your city, and to think not of what it is lacking, but of what it has. In less developed cities, we have a natural tendency to believe that we lack a lot of things that we should have, and that life is difficult for that reason. Things change as you begin to look at everything about your city as a possibility and a tool for its development, as minor as it may be, and whatever is not immediately an asset may be looked at as a prospect and, using our creativity, we may find ways to turn these hidden prospects into value and development, making something out of nothing simply by shifting our focus to a positive and creative one.
The World Urban Forum is the United Nations’ worldwide conference on cities. Its fifth edition, themed “The Right to the City” was held in Rio de Janeiro’s port area, from the 22nd to the 26th of March 2010. The next WUF will take place in Bahrain, in 2012.
*Tiago Donato is CatComm’s Policy Intern. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Tiago blogs for CatComm while keeping track of local policy.
A Slave Cemetery Just Blocks from the World Urban Forum, by Tiago Donato*
The northern section of the center of Rio, north of Avenida Presidente Vargas, is a mystery to many. The area is called Santo Cristo, Gamboa and Saúde or the Zona Portuária (”Port Zone”). This is in reference to the port, which commuters typically look down upon from the Perimetral highway up above, long lines of cars awaiting their export destination, and stacks of containers filled with consumer goods. Yet underneath the highway, as always, there are people dwelling. Much of the port is in fact disused, except for such events as the World Urban Forum next week, which set up camp in the area.
But there is much to be discovered about the port area of Rio. It is the birthplace of Samba and several of Rio’s Samba schools, where most of them have their Barracões. On it also lies Morro da Providência, Brazil’s first favela, which today is still burdened with the violent presence of one of Rio’s narco-trafficking criminal organizations.
Not far from the warehouses which will host the World Urban Forum events in Gamboa, on Rua Pedro Ernesto, lot number 36, about 15 years ago, new residents found human remains buried underneath their home, as they began work on improvements. After long years of bureaucracy, the Brazilian Institute of Archaeology finally excavated the site and removed some of the artifacts found, much to the brief excitement of local media. By an estimate by Julio Cesar Pereira, who dedicated his Master’s degree to the history of the archaeological site, based on records from the Igreja de Santa Rita from 1824 to 1830, there could be more than 10,000 skeletons buried below ground in mass graves, as well as many artifacts from the period, such as the metal sticks used to burn and identify a slave by his or her owner’s initials. It was then called Cemitério do Valongo, today referred to as the Cemitério dos Pretos Novos, a site where thousands of Africans who died shortly after arriving from Africa had been buried, unnamed. As these children, women and men died without being sold in the slave market that operated in the area (which transferred from Rua Primeiro de Março in 1769, and there stayed until Abolition), most were not marked or baptized, thus leaving no record of their identity, being ditched underneath Rua Pedro Ernesto 36 as imported goods spoiled in transit.
After being contacted and visited by people interested in the history of the archaelogical site underneath their home, Mercedes and Petrucio, who by then also owned the 2 neighboring lots, decided to create a cultural space, in which to reflect upon this memory and keep it alive. So was created the Instituto dos Pretos Novos, which houses works by many artists, Afro-Brazilian or otherwise, who graciously lend their creations to be exhibited there, as well as workshops on the history of the Zona Portuária, the slave trade in Rio de Janeiro, and on the history of Samba.
Perhaps the best way to describe the IPN would be as a sadly fading beacon of the history of this part of Rio de Janeiro. The area has changed over time. Once nicknamed Little Africa, it is now home to a population of mostly migrant workers from the Nordeste, many of the original inhabitants who lived in the area after Abolition having left a long time ago. Yet, an association with slavery and the descendants of African slaves seems to have endured. Perhaps as our societies seem eager to forget about the horrible crimes against humanity committed in large scale during the slavery era, it is also eager to forget about the place where everything happened. It is said that nearby Rua do Livramento has not one occupied lot, and your correspondent witnessed only rats dwelling it in broad daylight.
The Instituto dos Pretos Novos, too, finds enormous difficulties maintaining their building, their activities and their existence, and support from government and civil society, while not completely non-existant, is all too scarce, the same harsh reality faced by the surrounding area and its inhabitants. Interest in the port area is at a peak, but that hardly means great development has taken place in the area; it is still heartbreaking how it lags behind the rest of the city by almost any measure of human development, in spite of the government’s and the society’s efforts, as there have been, to restore this significant space in the heart of our city.
The Instituto dos Pretos Novos will be open for visitation during the World Urban Forum, for information call +55 (21) 2516 7089 or email pretosnovos@pretosnovos.com.br.
*Tiago Donato is CatComm’s Policy Intern. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Tiago blogs for CatComm while keeping track of local policy.
In a meeting with the Mayor of Rio, Vila Autódromo reaffirms desire to stay, by Sheila Jacob
March 5, 2010 — As we have recently announced, the Vila Autódromo community, located in Barra da Tijuca, a prime area of Rio, has been mobilizing since last year to ensure its permanence despite the City’s plans to remove it in name of the 2016 Olympics. In a meeting with the Mayor on March 3rd, residents refused the proposal presented by City Hall and propose an alternative project that reconciles their staying with the Olympic Games.
The fact is that the project for the 2016 Olympics includes the removal of the families from Vila Autódromo, where the construction of the Media Center and Olympic Training Center are planned. Since the announcement of the removal, made by the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes (PMDB/RJ), in press conferences, the residents have stated their desire to stay at assemblies held in the community, organized by the Residents’ Association – of which over a thousand people have participated.
To discuss the specific case of the Vila Autódromo, a meeting was held this Wednesday, March 3rd, at 5:00 PM, at City Hall headquarters. In addition to the Mayor himself and the Municipal Housing Secretary, Jorge Bittar (PT/RJ), leaders and residents of Vila Autódromo, public defenders of the state of Rio, and representatives from the Federation of the Residents’ Associations of the State of Rio (FAFERJ) and the National Housing Struggle Movement were present.
At the start of the meeting, the Mayor guaranteed that no measures would be taken without prior discussion with the residents of the community, and also said that he hopes that the Olympics come to signify social transformation and concrete improvements for the entire city, such as the urbanization of the favelas. In the case of Vila Autódromo, he proposed an indemnification or the resettlement of the families, that is, moving them to locations near to where their homes are currently.
The President of the Residents’ Association, Altair Guimarães, and other residents from the community present refused the Mayor’s proposal, echoing the voices of others who do not want to leave their homes or their life history. “I came here with the hope that the Games would take place where the community is today. I understand what you are offering, but know that this is not what the community wants,” said Altair to the Mayor. Jane Nascimento, also from the association, said she considers the proposal “disrespectful”, and defended the urbanization of the community, which would significantly improve the image of the city in international eyes.
Mayor admits that there was a mistake in the project design
As stressed the lawyer Alexandre Mendes, from the Nucleus of Lands and Housing from the Public Defender’s Office of the State of Rio, one major problem is the fact that the project was prepared without prior consultation with the community’s inhabitants. According to him, this finding allows a revision to be made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Mayor himself apologized and admitted there was a “mistake at the origin”, and said he is open to other proposals.
In light of this, the Public Defender Maria Lúcia Pontes requested that the official project approved by the IOC be analyzed and discussed. The idea is to build, together with other partnered entities and movements, a counter-proposal, which “clearly will be prepared so that the community stays”, as the lawyer pointed out. This alternative project will be presented at the next meeting with the Mayor – with indications of it being held in the beginning of April. She said that the fight of the Public Defender’s Office and the residents is not to allow a repeat of what takes place in other countries when “the poor are excluded from the city”, so that large-scale events like this can take place.
Sheila Jacob is a journalist with Piratinga.org.br. View the original story in Portuguese here.
Special thanks to CatComm volunteer Carolyn Oliveira for a speedy translation of this article.
