Favelos are where the poor and low income people live in Rio. They are not slums, at least not today. They are in the mountains overlooking the city, beach and ocean - prime real estate in most other cties.
They came about decades ago as the poor fled the northern countryside looking for work in the city and their numbers have swelled to over 1 million people spread across about 150 different favelos neighborhoods.
They squatted in these mountains and built shanty towns. Over the years, the favelos had become so large - some as big as 150,000 people that the government was forced to recognize their rights and begin to provide basic services.
While the people are poor their homes have improved substantially over the years. The men in the families all work in the contructon industiries or the trades and so they know how to build a sturdy house. The materials are stolen from job sites and brought up the mountain to add 2nd, 3rd and even 4th floors to the houses.
Private donors a well as government have created small schools within each favelo to educate the children for a better life. The favelos are NOT safe at night and even during the day you are advised to go with an experinced guide.
The favelos are small functioning economies with shops and tint restaurants to serve the locals and stores to sell handmade crafts to visitors. I felt very comfortable and entirely welcome while we were there.
What is most stricking is the proximity of the poor to the super-rich in Rio. I saw this clearly when I was hang gliding -- literally one block away from the favelos edge would be a $2-3M mansion with land, a huge pool, tennis courts and a circular driveway -- ringed by high walls with barbed wire and guards posted around the grounds.
The challenge of finding meaningful employement and improving the lives of Rio's poor is constant. So much of their economy is service based - i.e. -- tourism, so it is hard to see how much can be changed without movement into light manufacturing or technology. The inhibitor is Brazil's horrible edcuation system, which I will comment on in a later post.
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