Catalytic Communities

This article offers a behind-the-scenes look at the documentary How to Survive Environmental Racism. Divided into four chapters, the documentary-in-progress serves as a tool against the invisibility of Greater Rio de Janeiro’s Baixada Fluminense region’s climate crisis. Supported by Fundo Casa 2022 and crowdfunding efforts, and produced by Visão Coop, the film was entirely shot in the Baixada and brings to light the reality of everyday environmental struggles, which have produced serious consequences for the local population over decades. The work’s completion, however, is contingent on additional funding, further reflecting the scarcity experienced by organizers in the region.

“After the 2020 flood in Queimados, Visão Coop began to work on initiatives such as the Flood Brigade and the Environmental Defense Center, avenues for emergency action in our peripheries affected by climate change. We were considering possible collective mitigation strategies against further impact, which culminated in the Avatar Project, a system to monitor climate disasters through the four elements—water, fire, earth, and air—since they are all interconnected and are the themes of the documentary. The film was born from this process, recording environmental racism in four municipalities in the Baixada region: Queimados, Nova Iguaçu, Itaguaí, and Duque de Caxias.” — Fabrícia Sterce

The Challenge of Making Environmental Racism Visible as Reflected in the Documentary Film ‘How to Survive Environmental Racism’ - RioOnWatch  Clique aqui para Português This article offers a behind-the-scenes look at the documentary How to Survive Environmental Racism. Divided into four chapters, the documentary-in-progress serves as a tool against the invisibility of Greater Rio [...]

Several favela community kitchens, advocacy organizations and agroforestry projects are working to challenge the Brazilian stigma around jackfruit and promote it as the extremely rich food source that it is. Jackfruit allows residents to achieve greater economic and food security. Meanwhile, new research is shedding a light on how the Asian tree arrived in and spread across Rio de Janeiro's landscape: charcoal distribution overlaid with jackfruit distribution accounts for 50% of the total jackfruit presence. And “when you overlay the trails and old paths and ruins of houses and bridges... it explains more than 90%."

These trees tell a story. To some, as an invasive, exotic species, they should be removed. But to others, extracting the jackfruit trees under presumption of invasiveness would be to ignore the nature of the past itself and the trees' social, cultural, and dietary importance to Rio’s most vulnerable populations throughout history.

“Black populations were and still are very important ecological stewards of landscape… They learned how to manage all of the flora that was available to them, that also in some way would help them with their livelihoods.” — Alexandro Solórzano

This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University.

w/ Favela Orgânica, Mão na Jaca - Clube Da Felicidade E Da Sorte, CEM - Centro de Integração na Serra da Misericórdia, Sinal do Vale

Brazilian Favelas Are Overthrowing Colonial Legacies and Carving Out a Future With... Jackfruit?! - RioOnWatch This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas for RioOnWatch. Otávio Barros, a [...]

June 2024 reflected three years since the murder of Kathlen Romeu and her unborn baby in the favelas of Complexo do Lins, in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone. An event was organized to mark the date at the headquarters of Unidos do Cabuçu—a samba school from the Barro Preto favela, located in Complexo do Lins—in memory of Romeu. Titled Justice Memorial for Kathlen and Her Baby, the event organized by the Black Community, also known as the Kath Collective, brought together family members, friends, acquaintances, residents, and politicians. They demanded and an end to the genocide of Afro-Brazilians. The event also celebrated the two lives that were taken prematurely, in an abrupt and senseless action carried out by the Rio de Janeiro Military Police (PMERJ).

“I will not give up on my daughter’s memory as long as I live, and if I fail… I know that my daughter left behind infinite seeds.” — Jackeline Lopes, Kathlen Romeu’s mother

"The opposite of life is not death: it is the loss of life’s charm. Therefore, we do not perish! Kathlen lives on in our bodies, in our struggles. Resurrected! This is subversion, it is insurrection. The non-acceptance of death.” — Father Gegê, the Parish Priest of St. Bernadette Church in Manguinhos

w/ Federação das Associações de Favelas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - Faferj, SERES Unidos do Cabuçu, OABRJ, Alerj - Assembleia Legislativa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto Marielle Franco, Ministério Público Federal - MPF, Ministério da Igualdade Racial

Memories Are Bulletproof: Three Years Without Kathlen and Her Baby - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português June 2024 reflected three years since the murder of Kathlen Romeu and her unborn baby in the favelas of Complexo do Lins, in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone. An event was [...]

The Favela Climate Memory Exhibition, organized by museums and memory projects associated with Rio de Janeiro's Sustainable Favela Network, was on display this June as part of World Environment Month, at the Center for Studies and Solidarity Actions of Maré in the favelas of Complexo da Maré, in the city's North Zone. With a particular focus on reaching youth from the College Preparatory Course and Ecoa Maré.

“This exhibition is extremely important for the residents of our region because our memories are often forgotten and rarely talked about. Our memories are not being broadcasted on mainstream media. So, when a favela has the opportunity to share its own memories, its own lived experiences, it’s profoundly significant for our self-recognition, for our identity, and our sense of belonging to the place we call home." — Guilherme Paiva"

w/ Rede Favela Sustentável, CEASM, FAPERJ - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Museu da Maré

In Complexo da Maré, ‘Favela Climate Memory’ Exhibition Engages Youth from Ecoa Maré and the Institution's College Prep Course - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português The Favela Climate Memory Exhibition, organized by museums and memory projects associated with the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN)*, is currently being shown as part of World Environment Month, at the Center [...]

It is impossible to tell the story of Vidigal, the favela in Rio de Janeiro’s South Zone seen by every visiting tourist at the end of Leblon beach, without mentioning Carlos Raimundo Duque, an important local leader. Born on April 26, 1945, Duque moved with his family to Vidigal at the age of five.

Carlos Duque was the mastermind behind various strategies used to build a sense of collective belonging. For example, in order to gain residents’ support for the community struggle being organized by the AMVV, Seu Duque appealed to Brazil’s national passion: soccer. He gained support from a local Catholic School's nuns for the favela’s cause. At his request, the nuns declared a day off from classes and lent him school buses, allowing him to take residents threatened with eviction to visit Antares, the distant neighborhood where they had been promised "two-storey houses." The strategy proved successful. He also received support from renowned lawyers like Bento Rubião. Residents finally won the right to stay in 1980 through judicial means.

Ironically, today, Rua Carlos Duque, located in the upper part of the hill in the Bagulheiro area, faces evictions and real estate speculation.

🔗 Read the full article: bit.ly/4cMwx5r

w/ Pastoral de Favelas, Leão XIII, Comlurb - Companhia Municipal de Limpeza Urbana da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Federação das Associações de Favelas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - Faferj

From May 26-29, 2024, a Sustainable Favela Network delegation of 19 community organizers representing favelas across Rio de Janeiro with 1.2 million residents brought their demanda for clean and just energy to federal policymakers in the Brazilian capital of Brasília.

They were three intense days filled with powerful and productive dialogues about energy access, quality, and efficiency in favelas. With a focus on energy justice, the Sustainable Favela Network delegation ‘Heading to Brasília for Energy Justice’ participated in numerous meetings, discussions, and provided comment during the ‘Just Energy Transition: The Social Role of Solar Energy’ congressional hearing. This public hearing, held on World Energy Day (May 29), sparked a broad dialogue about social solar energy.

Find out how Energy Week in Brasília unfolded, watch the full presentation (in Portuguese), and see photos in this thorough coverage.

w/ Associação de Mulheres de Itaguaí - Guerreiras e Articuladoras Sociais, AMAC Atitudes, Comunidades Catalisadoras (ComCat), Conexões Periféricas - RP, Galeria Providência, Museu de Favela MUF, Projeto Inclusão, Revolusolar, Projeto Social Semeando Amor, Teto Verde Favela, Arayara, ClimaInfo, Inesc, Instituto Clima e Sociedade, Instituto Pólis, Lemon Energia, Lemon Energia, Nordeste Potência

Rio Favela Leaders Go to Brasília to Advocate for Clean and Just Energy - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português From May 26-29, 2024, a delegation of 19 community organizers representing favelas across Rio de Janeiro with 1.2 million residents brought their demanda for clean and just energy to federal policymakers [...]

Three years have passed since the Jacarezinho Massacre, during which Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Police (PCERJ) killed 28 residents in the deadliest police operation in Rio state history, the pain still plagues the Jacarezinho favela, particularly on Mother’s Day. One day after the day that celebrates motherhood, Maria Conceição and Solange Silva were once again fighting to force authorities to reopen investigations and guarantee dignified funeral rights for their late children. They decided to exhume their sons’ bodies of their own accord. On their laps, they bore not gifts or flowers, but boxes with their sons’ remains. But these mothers do not want flowers: the Mother’s Day gift they ask for is justice for their children.

According to a study on police massacres, between 2016 and 2023, the Fogo Cruzado Institute documented 283 police operations in Rio de Janeiro that would be characterized as massacres, resulting in 1,137 civilian deaths. On average, there were three massacres per month.

w/ Polícia Civil do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Ministério Público Federal - MPF, Defensoria Pública do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Fogo Cruzado, GENI - Grupo de Estudos dos Novos Ilegalismos

Three Years After Deadliest Massacre by Police in Rio de Janeiro History, Mothers of Jacarezinho Victims Continue Fighting for Justice - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português Three years have passed since the Jacarezinho Massacre, during which Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Police (PCERJ) killed 28 residents in the deadliest police operation in Rio state history, the pain still [...]

Written between 1978 and 1983, during Brazil’s Military Dictatorship, the book 'String of Memories: Stories from Rocinha' still serves as a reference for the retrieval and recording of local memory. The work built and documented new historical narratives from the voices of favela residents during the dictatorship. Under an authoritarian regime, the emphasis on ordinary stories lived by individuals in the favela was revolutionary and democratizing.

w/ Museu Sankofa Rocinha - Memória e História, Rocinha Histórica, ASPA - Ação Social Padre Anchieta

Discover 'String of Memories': A Book Written by Night School Students in Rio's Rocinha Favela in 1983, During the Military Dictatorship - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português This article is part of RioOnWatch‘s series on Memories of Favela Power, which documents and celebrates the history of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas through narratives and reports from residents’ collective memory, [...]

Rio de Janeiro’s Urban Peripheries Literary Festival (FLUP) kicked off its 14th edition on Saturday, May 11. The festival’s 2024 program promises to be rich and diverse, offering courses and workshops from June to August. This edition’s honoree is the intellectual from Sergipe: historian, pioneer of the Brazilian Black movement, poet, and filmmaker Beatriz Nascimento.

“From this moment on, the use of the term ‘quilombo’ will take on a basically ideological and essentially doctrinal connotation in the sense of gathering, in the sense of community, in the sense of struggle—recognizing men, recognizing people who should truly fight for better living conditions. They are part of this society and should fight for their rightful place.” — Beatriz Nascimento

“I will pay tribute to the two Beatrizes that FLUP chose to honor. Last year, Beatriz Moreira Costa (Mother Beata de Iemanjá), now an ancestor, and this year, Beatriz Nascimento. Both were committed to fighting religious intolerance and promoting racial literacy. Beatriz Nascimento, along with Lélia Gonzalez, turned to Africa to understand history, because part of religious racism stems from an untold memory.” — Flávia Pinto

w/ Flup, Circo Crescer e Viver, Casa do Perdão

Counter-Narratives at the Heart of Afro-Brazilian Culture: 14th Urban Peripheries Literary Festival Celebrates Beatriz Nascimento - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português Rio de Janeiro’s Urban Peripheries Literary Festival (FLUP) kicked off its 14th edition on Saturday, May 11 with an event held at Circo Crescer e Viver, in the area now known [...]

One of Rio de Janeiro’s two dozen favela museums—many of which are territorial museums produced through social museology—the Maré Museum is the largest installation-based museum and often open to visitors.

The museum’s 2024 anniversary celebration encouraged participants to reflect on “Maré in 12 Eras,” the name of the museum’s permanent exhibition. The twelve eras are thematic categories that organize and guide visitors through the exhibition, showcasing the diversity of topics surrounding Maré’s history. Residents, students, teachers, and museum representatives wrote about the eras of water, home, migration, resistance, work, celebration, market, faith, daily life, children, fear, and future.

“The object I love most in the Maré Museum is the stilt house. Because I like houses and I think I could be an architect. I love houses and miniatures. And when I enter the stilt house, I recognize many objects that were part of my childhood. For example, there was the basin… and I remember how thin it was, and that my mother used to wash dishes in that basin. I lived in a very small house; it only had one room. My bathroom was outside, so I remember that basin. For me, it’s a very strong, very deep memory. And this plate too; there are many objects that I recognize when I’m there in the stilt house. It’s the era [in the museum] I love the most. I love the Maré Museum, I love the whole style of the stilt house. Home is the era [of the exhibition] that I love the most.” — Helaine Alves

w/ Museu da Maré, Ceja Maré, Especiais Da Maré, CEASM, Arquivo Nacional, Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, Casa de Oswaldo Cruz - COC | Fiocruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Redes da Maré - Somos Todos Maré

The Maré Museum, Rio de Janeiro's Largest Installation-Based Favela Museum, Celebrates 18 Years - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português Held on May 22, the “Tea of Memories” event celebrated the 18th anniversary of the Maré Museum, situated in Complexo da Maré, a group of 16 favelas in the North Zone [...]

RioOnWatch.org recently had the pleasure of speaking with Ana Muza Cipriano, the founder of PPG INFORMATIVO, to learn more about her work, the history of this favela-based media channel, its impacts, and how she understands the importance of the favela journalism ecosystem.

“[Our audience] are the residents of the territory, because ours is an outlet made for them, by them… We talk about very specific places that you [from outside] do not know. And the residents are the true reporters, because I can’t talk about the territory without the resident that’s helping me tell that story. You have to be cria to speak with property and belonging. ” — Ana Muza Cipriano

🔗For the full article, visit our website: bit.ly/45yByfv

📲 Learn more about PPG Informativo:: PPG INFORMATIVO

Each year on June 21, more and more people around the world are celebrating World Localization Day. In 2020, NGO Local Futures organized the first World Localization Day. Countless citizens, initiatives and organizations are also involved in localization, even if they may not use the label.

Localization, put simply, has to do with reconsidering where we apply our focus: moving it close to home—to building community well-being and self-reliance through local systems for food, economy, housing, knowledge, and more. It is not about nationalism or localism, but about shifting awareness away from dependence on top-down globalization and toward how we can strengthen the world bottom-up: by strengthening our communities and their own forms of existence and systems of production.

In honor of World Localization Day 2024, RioOnWatch has put together a primer on the movement for localization, understanding that Rio de Janeiro’s vibrant favelas are also potent examples of the power of localization.

“To embark on a systemic path of localization, we need to redirect economic support to favor the local over the global, instead of the other way around… If we can bring about policy shifts, we will see healing, regeneration and transformation more quickly than most of us dare to imagine.” — Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of Local Futures

w/ Local Futures / Economics of Happiness, Pun Pun Organic Farm, Adubarte, Banco Palmas

June 21 Is World Localization Day: The Biggest Movement You May Be a Part of Without Realizing [REFERENCE] - RioOnWatch Each year on June 21, more and more people around the world are celebrating World Localization Day. In 2020, NGO Local Futures organized the first World Localization Day. Countless citizens, initiatives and organizations are also involved [...]

The history of residents’ struggles in Cooper Square dates back to the 1950s, during a time of major urban transformations in New York City. At the time, the city underwent various urban renewal projects, with areas inhabited by low-income residents, mostly Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods, receiving massive investments in infrastructure after displacing existing residents. These projects served the interests of real estate developers, who would benefit from the neighborhoods’ appreciation. The result was often the forced displacement of the original population, largely low-income workers and immigrants, and its replacement by residents with higher socioeconomic status.

The Cooper Square Community Land Trust emerged from the organizing efforts in neighborhood planning and in resistance to a development project that failed to address residents’ needs. Its mission is to preserve and develop affordable housing, as well as community and cultural spaces, ensuring that Cooper Square remains racially, economically, and culturally diverse.

The Cooper Square Community Land Trust has successfully survived decades, through a historic struggle for housing rights, and today ensures the well-being of hundreds of families with tenure security and affordable housing. Currently, the MHA manages around 400 affordable housing units spread across 23 buildings, and the Cooper Square CLT forms part of the city-wide New York City Community Land Initiative, a coalition of groups and individuals advocating in favor of community land trusts.

Want to learn more? Join us on July 3, 2024, for a talk by Cooper Square CLT Director Tom Angotti on Zoom in English and Portuguese: https://bit.ly/InscricaoTomAngotti.

w/ Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, Cooper Square Community Land Trust (CSCLT), Cooper Square Committee (CSC), New York City Community Land Initiative

The Cooper Square Community Land Trust on the Lower East Side: A Model of Community Planning, Power and Tenure Since the 1960s - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português This is the latest in a series of articles about Community Land Trust (CLT) experiences around the world. We selected a few cases based on their potential to inspire others. These examples show [...]

On June 13, the favela of Santo Amaro in Catete, a neighborhood in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, experienced an evening of environmental awareness through art and culture. In its fourth edition, ‘Climate Gathering: Climate of Art‘ brought together residents, teachers, activists, collectives, and others interested in environmental issues within the favela. The event, which attracted some 120 people, connected communities with climate-related topics using cultural expression. This annual gathering is organized by the collective Climate of Change Coalition.

“The idea is that this is a tiny bit of what we need to do, but it’s the way [we found] to make this tiny bit reach people in the favela. By reaching [them with] the rap battle, which always takes place, but has never focused on the theme of climate change, though it will today. It’s the way to reach the crowd that’s always hanging out at the bar, at the barber shop, and will show up because there’s something going on. If we think about historical and ancestral retrieval and everything colonialism took from favelas—the relationship with herbs, the relationship with the soil… We tend to normalize these absurdities and distance ourselves from something that was ours, our people’s.” — Marcele Oliveira

This article is produced in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University.

w/ Ademafia

‘Climate of Art’ Event in Santo Amaro Favela Adopts Culture as a Strategy to Fight Climate Change and Environmental Racism - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas [...]

The Favela Climate Memory Exhibition, organized by museums and memory projects associated with the Sustainable Favela Network, was on display from May 6-June 4 at the Favela Museum (MUF) in Pavão-Pavãozinho/Cantagalo, South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition was part of the program honoring Brazil’s 22nd Annual National Museum Week.

“I participated in the whole process of forming ideas for the [climate memory] discussion circles. Seeing the first stage completed and receiving the resulting exhibition here is really significant. The residents sharing their thoughts, looking at each other, and also being able to see that this is not just happening here, that there are other places facing very similar problems: they find this identification with one another. Because we often think that these things only happen here, that only we have been abandoned, that only we go through this... And then, [having] exchanges and solutions, to be able to say 'look over there, they solved it in this way, here [we solved it] another way'. This exchange is very important. And, in a sense, it was to house this creation, that [I] participated, that I was able to contribute to this creation.” — Márcia Souza, co-founder of the Favela Museum

w/ Rede Favela Sustentável (RFS), Museu de Favela MUF, Museu da Maré , Museu Sankofa Rocinha - Memória e História, NOPH - Núcleo de Orientação e Pesquisa Histórica de Santa Cruz

During Brazil's 22nd Museum Week, ‘Favela Climate Memory’ Exhibition Brings Climate Stories to The Favela Museum - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português The Favela Climate Memory Exhibition, organized by museums and memory projects associated with the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN)*, was on display from May 6-June 4 at the Favela Museum (MUF) in [...]

On May 27-29, World Energy Week, a delegation of 26 members of Rio de Janeiro’s Sustainable Favela Network and partners, heads to Brasília for a series of activities at the National Congress, fighting for just and clean energy in the favelas.

The Sustainable Favela Network delegation will focus on three agendas during World Energy Week in Brasília. They are:

(1) The renewal of electricity concessions, which in Brazil takes place every 30 years and is currently up for consideration in Congress, during which the group will address concerns regarding access to and the quality of electricity reaching favelas, and implications for the terms of concession contract renewals.

(2) Social tariff, which in Brazil is required to reach the most vulnerable, yet does not take place: the delegation will share how electricity has gained new centrality in favelas yet there is little effective access to an affordable tariff.

(3) Social solar energy: the delegation will fight for the adoption of and broad access to solar energy in favelas as a solution, including for the issues raised in the previous items, providing autonomy and sustainability to communities and contributing to society as a whole.

w/ Associação de Mulheres de Itaguaí - Guerreiras e Articuladoras Sociais, AMAC Atitudes, Comunidades Catalisadoras (ComCat), Conexões Periféricas - RP, Galeria Providência, Museu de Favela MUF, Projeto Inclusão, Revolusolar, Projeto Social Semeando Amor, Teto Verde Favela, Arayara, ClimaInfo, Inesc, Instituto Clima e Sociedade, Instituto Pólis, Lemon Energia, Lemon Energia, Nordeste Potência

World Energy Week: Rio de Janeiro’s Sustainable Favela Network Holds Meetings and Participates in Public Hearing for a Just Transition at the National Congress in Brasília [RELEASE] - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português THE DELEGATION OF 19 COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS REPRESENTING FAVELAS WITH 1.2 MILLION RESIDENTS HEADS TO BRASÍLIA FOR ENERGY JUSTICE On May 27-29, World Energy Week, a delegation of 26 members of Rio [...]

Razia Khanom, Vice-President of the London Community Land Trust, visited Rio de Janeiro and shared her story with us. In celebration of World CLT Day 2024, we are thrilled to share this evocative, deep-dive interview with Razia.

"When the CLT [organizers] came along and I could see how this is a huge element of the solution to social housing, it almost became a moral obligation for me to be involved, to share my story so that others who might be feeling isolated like me have some form of comfort that they’re not alone. Like somehow, maybe, if we got together and we delivered these homes, we could prevent [displacement] from happening." — Razia Khanom

"These people [in Brazil’s favelas] have such an amazing spirit. They have such a strong will. It will only benefit the country to provide the space to see what they can actually achieve. There were things that favela residents are doing which we’ve lost a lot of in London. For example, that sense of community… My aspiration now is to replicate as much as possible in our own way that community spirit that I’ve seen in the favelas—that resilient passion, moving forward." — Razia Khanom

w/ London CLT, Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, International Center for Community Land Trusts

Razia Khanom, VP of London Community Land Trust: ‘The Community Spirit of Favelas Should Be Implemented in the UK’ [INTERVIEW] - RioOnWatch In November 2023, Razia Khanom, Vice-President of the London Community Land Trust visited Rio de Janeiro for the Favela CLT Project‘s* 5th Anniversary and 3rd National Seminar. The event focused on collective ownership of land and community spaces as offering resistance [...]

In October 2023, Ashley Allen, executive director of the Houston Community Land Trust, visited Rio de Janeiro. On the occasion, Allen spoke about her experiences advocating for affordable housing as a Black CLT leader in the United States. The bonds Allen built with organizers from Brazil and elsewhere stretched far. These relationships exemplify how livable, sustainable communities across the world are rooted in personal ties.

"I see the CLT as a continuous way to be a system changer. It’s not just a program, it’s not just a two-person issue. We’re changing the way land, and the way housing, is accessed and distributed...

My hope is that mindsets change and people open their minds. So that people actually address the problem and everyone else will follow in line. That across the board, across the world, people will start to open up their minds and say, what we’ve been doing isn’t working. There are too many people that are housing insecure, there are too many people that are homeless. Why are we not pushing the issue of housing? It is a basic human right." – Ashley Allen

w/ Houston Community Land Trust, Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, London CLT, Proyecto ENLACE del Caño Martín Peña, International Center for Community Land Trusts

Ashley Allen, Executive Director of the Houston Community Land Trust: 'There Should be a Global Summit for Housing' [INTERVIEW] - RioOnWatch In November 2023, Ashley Allen, executive director of the Houston Community Land Trust, visited Rio de Janeiro for the Favela CLT Project‘s* 5th Anniversary and 3rd National Seminar. The event focused on collective ownership of [...]

The 1st International Favelas’ Conference (IFC20) was held at the Central Única de Favelas (CUFA) headquarters in Complexo da Penha, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, on Monday, April 29. A collaborative effort by CUFA, the National Anti-racist Front (FNA), and the Favelas Parliamentary Front, the initiative aims to gather the demands of the favelas of Brazil and 40 other countries. Proposals from the conference will be delivered at the G20 Summit, scheduled for November 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, and attended by global leaders. The IFC20 is held in partnership with UNESCO and endorsed by G20 Social.

“We decided to take a different approach. Usually, it’s the more organized movements that go to conferences. We needed to get ahold of the disorganized and bring the conferences to the favela. That was a first point. And that included those who don’t even know what the heck a conference is and what it’s for. A conference is a gathering of our interests, of our daily lives. We made an effort so that many people who don’t have the means to be here today could come, listen, and take in what residents of other favelas produce every day. And we want to do this in 41 countries as well.” — Preto Zezé

w/ CUFA - Central Única das Favelas, G20 Brasil, UNESCO, MNU - Movimento Negro Unificado, Trace Brasil, Frente Favela Brasil, Instituto Pereira Passos - IPP

Complexo da Penha Hosts the 1st International Favelas Conference: Proposals Will Be Taken to the G20 Summit in November - RioOnWatch Clique aqui para Português The 1st International Favelas’ Conference (IFC20) was held at the Central Única de Favelas (CUFA) headquarters in Complexo da Penha, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, on Monday, April [...]