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Read moreRocinha Favela
Background
Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro is recognized as the largest urban slum in Brazil, with about 200,000 people living here. Rocinha, situated on a steep hillside one kilometer from the famous beaches of Rio, is a densely crowed shantytown of mostly crude cinderblock and cement housing connected by a complex maze of narrow alleyways.
We identified a need to offer considerably improved education for the people living in one of the poorest parts of Rocinha, a subsection called Roupa Suja (or Dirty Laundry, as translated from Portuguese). While some portions of Rocinha have gained attention for the positive development of its infrastructure, Roupa Suja continues to function at extreme levels of poverty, an unhealthy sanitary environment and constant security risks resulting from pervasive conflict among heavily armed drug factions.
From their homes perched in this hillside favela, Rocinha’s poor can look onto San Conrado, one of Rio’s most exclusive neighborhoods. The juxtaposition of tremendous wealth and extreme poverty, as is the case with many neighborhoods in Rio, calls attention to the country’s serious income disparity and the complex challenges that exist between people of both worlds.
Project
The Developing Minds Foundation has sponsored a project to build a computer school in Rocinha. As a result of this project, we now have close to 100 children from the favela who are learning to use computers and develop technology skills – an important step in bridging the digital divide. Our partnership with Uniao de Mulheres, a successful locally-run organization, addresses the woefully inadequate public education there by offering complementary academic and extra-curricular training in a dynamic learning environment.
The computer program reinforces what students are learning in their public school classrooms, as well as assists them with reading, writing and other important skills in an innovative and fun environment. Equally important, it keeps children off the streets and creates a supportive environment to help them stay out of illegal activities and drug trafficking so that we may orient them toward a positive alternative.