Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Favelas

On May 7th we had the opportunity to take a tour of one of the largest Favelas in Rio. A favela is a Brazilian slum, where the poorest people of the city live. They surround Rio, and other cities in Brazil.

This was a very eye-opening experience for me. I had heard about Favelas, and read about the poor living conditions, the crime, drug cartels and the drug lords who ruled the street within the favelas, so I had very mixed feelings about walking around inside one. My tour manager assured me that it was safe.

The favela we visited was called Rocinha, and approximately 200,000 people live there. It is one of the largest favelas in Rio. Below is the view of the favela. It is really large, and spans almost as far as the eye can see:

Favelas are known for a few key features. Most of them are made by hand with bricks and have a flat roof. Each house began with a single hand-built level, but to make money families would sell their rooftop to another family, who would then build their own house right on top of the original house. Each of these houses has a few levels (each occupied by a different family), and can go up to 6 levels high.

The houses are built extremely close to one another, and there is only room for narrow walking paths in between the houses. If you look up you can see tangled electrical wires hanging. The favela we visited was on a hill, so some of the small paths had staircases.

The conditions are so poor, it was really sad to see.

It was interesting to see that many of the houses are built to accommodate the existing trees:

While walking around I realized that I did not feel unsafe at all. Our tour manager explained that there have been a lot of improvements to the favelas. Instead of being run by the drug lords, they are now run by the police, and you can see police carrying runs walking around the street. There is now less crime, and any crime that happens is less violent than before. There is still a lot of drug dealing, but it is also less violent. You can see in the photo below the police men patrolling the streets.

In addition to the lowered crime rates, now a lot more children are enrolled in school. Previously when the drug lords controlled the favelas, they would recruit children to do their drug dealings (because children have shorter jail sentences), but with the improvements and the policing, many more children are enrolled in school. We saw many children in the favela, and they were wearing white shirts with a blue stripe on it. When a child is wearing that shirt it indicates that they are enrolled in school and they ride for free on public transit.

I felt really sad walking around and looking at such poverty. And I also wondered how the locals felt about us tourists walking around their neighbourhood taking photos. I wanted to help out in any way I could. Our tour manager told us not to hand out money to the people in the favelas unless we were purchasing something from them or paying for a service. During the tour we stopped at a number of different places to meet some of the locals and help them out by purchasing items from them. We visited an art studio where some local artists were selling their paintings. I bought a small painting by a 15 year old child named Jean who lives in the favela. He was taught to paint by his older brother. Many children are being taught crafts so they can sell them to make money. We also stopped at a very small bakery where I also bought some of the goods. We then met some local women who had made bracelets and I purchased a beaded bracelet from them. And finally we had a chance to meet some of the local children and they performed a dance for us and collected donations. The kids were really sweet, I took a video of their dance:

Walking around the favela was a really eye-opening experience for me. It was so sad to see the poverty that so much of the population lives in. It broke my heart, especially after spending 2 days in Buzios and looking at the beach houses that cost millions of dollars. Even on the drive up to the favela we passed some big houses with high security walls and armed guards where the rich live.

Although I have visited many poor countries before, I think that Brazil is the most unequal country I have visited, where the income distribution gap is the widest. It was so sad to see such a huge gap between the living conditions of the super rich and the super poor all within a 5 minute drive from each other.

I am very happy I visited the favela. Seeing these conditions really puts things into perspective, and makes you realize how lucky we are and how good we have it at home. Our problems are so miniscule in comparison to theirs, and I hope this is something we never forget.