Brazil: Internet access transforming slums’ youth

NGOs are using technology to broaden young people's horizons.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Fernando Eduardo Marins de Lima was 11 when he became interested in computers, but he could only access the Internet by paying to use a computer at a cybercafé.

Six years later, Lima had one of his videos shown at Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival

The airing of his video at the festival earlier this year is more than an honor: It's quite an accomplishment for a 17-year-old who lives in Parque da Esperança, a slum in the northern Rio de Janeiro city, and whose mother works as a housemaid.

But his "A festa da Pombajira das almas," a five-minute video about a place in his community where African-Brazilian Umbanda - a faith that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and numerous indigenous lore - is practiced, is just the beginning.

"I want to be a filmmaker," Fernando says. "I'm currently producing a short film about a group from the favela that performs black cultural dances."

Support for Lima's productions comes from the website Viva Favela, an initiative by the NGO Viva Rio.

The project brings together young residents from poor communities to work as reporters, photographers and producers to create multimedia content. Lima began as a correspondent for Viva Favela. He took a multimedia training course offered by Viva Favela and was hired by the NGO, which pays him a monthly stipend of R$170 (US$100). He's also provided with the equipment to make the videos.

Lima's life is an example of how computers are being used to transform the lives of youths in poor communities.

"Even when the kids are just playing around in the cybercafés, it's important," says Walter Mesquita, Viva Favela's content editor. "Computers let them see that their world is much larger than a small slice of life on the outskirts of society. It allows them to talk to other young people. It keeps them away from the violence and the problems, even though that's still a part of the world they live in."

Mesquita said the allure of computers and the attraction of weapons for youths in poor and violent areas are similar.

"Much like weapons, computers attract and seduce young people," he says. "Weapons are attractive because they offer a feeling of power, but they provoke fear and shame in the community. Computers also offer a feeling a power and they might offer even more status. The difference is that a young person sees a market where he can operate legally and make his community and his family proud."

Viva Favela had 18 correspondents from nine favelas when it started in 2001. Today, it has 779 registered participants nationwide.

Members are all allowed to participate in the staff meetings, which take place online twice monthly. A guest editor - usually a well-known Brazilian journalist - coordinates the meeting and decides how the session's topic will be discussed.

The members with the best suggestions on how to explore the topic receive R$170 (US$100) and have their pieces published in Viva Favela's biweekly electronic magazine.

"When we see someone with a lot of potential, we invest in them," Mesquita says. "All of the work is done with free software, so that they understand it's possible to work, even without the money to buy expensive programs and without resorting to illegal piracy. The idea is to bring them into the mainstream."

CDI was a pioneer in 1995

Brazilian NGO Comitê pela Democratizacão de Informatica (CDI) was a pioneer in the use of computers to promote the social inclusion of low-income populations.

CDI started establishing computer training centers in 1995, when the Internet was just beginning to take hold in Brazil.

With five computers and 10 students, the first training center was established in Santa Marta, a slum in southern Rio.

Fifteen years later, the NGO has reached 1.3 million users through its 820 centers spread throughout 13 countries.

Four hundred seventy-nine training centers are in Brazil, 220 others are located throughout Latin America and 121 are in Jordan and Europe.

The NGO's primary focus is offering computers and Internet access to poor communities, but it also gives training courses to people in prisons, psychiatric institutions, facilities to treat the handicapped, indigenous communities, remote population centers, juvenile correctional centers and hospitals.

"The pedagogical approach is based on [good] citizenship and is inspired by educator Paulo Freire's philosophy of empowerment," says Jairo Tinim, who has been working as a CDI course instructor at NGO Ceaca-Vila in the Morro dos Macacos slum for the past 2-½ years.

"We work with their day-to-day reality," he says, in an effort to find practical alternatives in the classroom to solve problems.

Morro dos Macacos made international headlines last year when a Rio Military Police helicopter was shot down by drug dealers armed with automatic weapons.

But parents must be vigilant when children are online.

"I have a computer at home and I tell my daughter to keep an eye on the kids," says Maria José Rodrigues da Silva. "One day she found my nephew (Magno Gonçalves, 14) in a chat room making plans to meet someone that he thought was a girl. But my daughter figured out that it was a man trying to trick him."

The result: Maria enrolled her nephew - who is an orphan and lives with her - in the course being offered in Morro dos Macacos "so that he can learn how to really use the computer and stop wasting his time fooling around on it."

"I think she did the right thing," says Gonçalves, who is in seventh grade. "I want to keep learning, including how to repair computer equipment."

Maria da Gloria das Dores Augustinho, another CDI student at Morro dos Macacos, has high hopes, even though she's struggled academically.

"I want to be a doctor," says Augustinho, a 21-year-old sixth grader who also works in a bakery. "I'm going to make up for lost time and study hard to reach my goal."

Anna Marcondes Faria, Ceaca-Vila's president, is confident Augustinho will succeed. The NGO, which works in partnership with CDI, provides tutoring and educational activities to about 500 children and adolescents monthly.

"I remember that before these courses we didn't have a single young person in college, and now there are quite a few," she says. "It's easier for the kids who are interested in computers to get ahead."

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