Powering a new future

I asked Ana Vale, the event coordinator and Head of EQUAL Managing Authority, Portugal how she feels now that everything’s finished.

She looked as happy and tired as she said she was. “I’m very happy. It went well. I’m relieved it’s over. it was very intense, full of stress, very gratifying. The atmosphere between people was very interesting; it was creative and there was a lot of happiness… it’s something not to forget.

“And now I’m going to rest.”

I caught two happy-looking people at the end of the conference and got some short reactions from them about the event. They had been presenting the results of years of working together in an EQUAL funded project called Anim@Te.

I asked Graça what she thought of the conference. She was very enthusiastic about the reaction of people to their project. People had applauded their work and there was a great connection of ideas.

Graça then asked Paulo what he was taking away with him.

“It was an important meeting of ideas, sharing of information and a sense of hope that some of these ideas will continue, and an idea that people will incorporate some of these ideas in their work.”

Também ficou admirado com as tradutoras de linguagem gestual no auditório grande? Perguntei-lhes porque estão aqui e se há diferença entre Língua Gestual Portuguesa e outras línguas.

Anyone who has been in the large auditorium must have seen them: the interpretors of sign language. They had to sit on a well lit high chair, and their upper body was projected on the screen. Like the simultaneous translation for Portuguese, English and French, they were translating instantly. I asked Vera and Sara if there were any deaf people in the public, and to my surprise, they did not know. “Because of the screen, a deaf person doesn’t necessarily have to make contact with us.” In the video, i asked a couple more questions, in Portuguese. I first spoke to Vera, while Sara gestuated the translation, and then the other way around. This way, i figured, any deaf person can follow. But i now learned that sign language also comes in language variants.

Maria Emília Arroz faz parte do Gabinete da Equal Portugal. Perguntei-lhe o que achou do evento. Ao que ela respondeu: foi um evento para celebrar os nossos sucessos dos últimos 8 anos. O evento também era para abrir espaços para conversa. Os próximos passos? Um desafio grande vai ser como segurar “a inovação social” nas futuras actividades.

Washington told me about Afroreggae in Brasil. I asked him what he was doing here…

“I’m here in the name of the cultural gorup Afroreggae. Afroreggae is a group of social inclusion of art for culture. It started fifteen years ago after one of the biggest police killings. The police were taking revenge on the comunity of a narcotics groups, killing innocent people in the process. We’ve got 14 cultural groups, doing workshops of dance, percussion, circus, working in 4 favelas in Rio de Janeiro. They are areas completely run-down through violence and from being abandoned.”

What do you do in Afroreggae?

“I’m mediator of conflicts in Afroregae. Afroreggae specialises in mediating conflicts, operating in areas of drug traffiking. We live in a daily war between narcotics dealers and between them and the police. We work in this area so that the social spaces and work can continue.”

How did you enter the group of Afroreggae?

“I was in the narcotics trade. I started at the age of thirteen and at nineteen became the head of one of the factions that dominates in Rio de Janeiro. I was put in prison and when I left had no future, almost returning to trafikkking in narcotics. I was introduced to someone in Afroreggae by a vicar who we both knew.  He invited me to work with them. At the begining I didn’t think I could. As far as I knew they were about percussion music. But he spent the whole afternoon explaining the concept of Afroreggae, this thing of mediation of taking young people away from narcotics, of giving them opportunities through culture. And me, with my life experience could be a strong weapon for taking young people away from trafikking or stopping them from entering that world.  My management of narcotics was, unfortunately, part of my youth. He said that using this experience for good would be a strong weapon for Afroreggae to take children away from trafiiking. Having understood that I actually have a higher education in something I wanted to enter and work, where I’ve been for two years. Just this month we’ve been involved in a project of employability and got 30 young people working in private companies, sensitising them to the work of Afroreggae and who are partners in this project.”

Afroreggae transformed your life?

“Yes, they projected my life and the lives of other people like me who didn’t have any opportunity.”

Ana Paula was also asked to describe her experience of participating in a programme of entrepreneurship organised by the Portuguese Youth Institute.

She says it was a challenge. “As you all know the money system is the hardest thing in prison. If you don’t have family or a way of having money inside, it’s very hard. It’s the coffee, tobacco, hygeine products. All the other people doing this programme (with the Portuguese Youth Institute, IPJ) had money, but we (from prison) didn’t. One member of our group was in the “open regime” but the rest of us were in the “closed regime”. We didn’t have any sense of prices outside the prison, nor what we were going to do. We formed groups .. we were left in the middle of nowhere and told that we had to double our money. We brought some beads for ten euros. We had no notion of prices outside but we managed to double our money. But above all we learned about sharing knowledge. We were confronted with the world of men. We were from a mixed prison where the men felt superior and we, as women, had to show that we could do the same as them. The sharing of knowledge and our experience was very enriching.”

Ana Paula, a prisoner from Castelo Branco was asked to talk about her experience of a programme called “a day in prison” for young people to spend a day living with a prisoner to see what it was like.

“I was happy to be showing people the age of my son the prison system, the rules we have to follow, to share the space in my cell and the discipline we have to undergo when we don’t behave so well. They ate with us, came to school with us, and everything. At the end of the day we all came together to talk about the experience. They didn’t say much, but there was a shine and a tear in their eyes. They said they hadn’t imagined that we live like that and didn’t think they would be able to. I too, never thought I’d be able to live like that, but adapted.

The group SDM BQG has been entertaining us with rap singing. Their lyrics are in Portuguese and talk about the cruel world and cold hearts. But it all turns more positive towards the end. The chorus is an advise to all of us: I can’t change the world but …. I can change one person…

Estes jovens do grupo SDM BQG têm estado a animar os visitantes do evento com as suas canções rap. Os textos falam de uma mudança na maneira de pensar.

Escrevo com sentimento, e abro o coração, e faço ver a todos que tudo tem uma solução.
Vive cada dia e cada dia a aprender.
O mundo é cruel não te deixes perder. Caminhos sem brilho, consciências pesadas julgam tudo e todos. E o mundo de pernas viradas.
Caso não saibas, só tu podes mudar e teu coração frio e a maneira de pensar. … de pensar… de uma forma diferente. De pensar… e agir como gente. Se alguém do bem dá o teu primeiro passo. Ser igual ser diferente, bro -não é esse o caso. Nada muda e um só não faz diferença. Eu falo ao mundo inteiro e mudei a minha cabeça.

O fim é uma lembrança a todos nós: Posso não mudar o mundo… mas mudo uma pessoa…

The sibling conflict, with new small sister

-”Go change into something decent. Why are you wearing this mini-skirt, my sister should dress properly and not walk around in this stupid short skirt!” The young guy towers over his sister and acts threatening.

-”But all the girls wear the same… I think I can dress the way I like” the sister shouts back. Their conflict escalates and the brother hits the sister.

This is a small scene a group of youngsters from Vale da Amoreira showed. At this point Gisella steps forward in the group of young actors and asks -to actors, audience and everybody in general: “Now how could this have been solved differently?” After a few general suggestions an especially responsive person from the audience is invited to come forward. A huge lad now takes the necklace of the girl and takes over the role of Michaela. The scene starts with the girls dancing, the brother comes up to them and starts again: Go change into something decent!… Only this time he is talking to a man his own size. The new actor tries to stand up for his right to wear what s/he chooses, but to prevent conflict.

The Grupo de Teatro Fórum do Vale de Amoreira is demonstrating the way Forum Theatre works.. by doing it. Forum theatre is a way to both work with groups of actors, engage them in something which will give them self-esteem AND reach out to others by doing it, in the schools, in the neighbourhoods.

Afterwards I meet some of the actors. They are between 15 and 34 years old, and meet twice a week to practise. They think of their themes themselves, and do not use any written scripts. In the videos they talk about themselves. The videos are in Portuguese.

Na apresentação do grupo teatro fórum do Vale da Amoreira falaram de “bairros problemáticos”. Uma senhora do público perguntou: “acham que são problemáticos os vossos bairros?” A resposta dos jovens foi unanime: “Não.” Falei com a senhora, Rôsangela Rabel.