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.
“I couldn’t have imagined that this event would be this huge. The Portuguese have done a very good job…” says Kimon Pappas of the Transnationality Unit in the DG Employment of the European Commission. Listen also to what he hopes to take home as a concrete result of this event.
While everybody here at “Powering a New Future” is happily visiting booths, engaging in consultancy clinics or listening in at one of the three auditioria, a story unfolds in the margin.
While yesterday these people were holding notes saying EX, CLU and SION, today to my surprise they held different signs. They also looked much happier. I wonder what will happen to them tomorrow…
-”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.
Catharina, of Alpkvist AB, talked to me about her work on gender issues in Sweden, where she worked with the government on gender mainstreaming. She talks about the challenges of making sure that the governor took ownership of the problems and of challenging middle management about these issues.
Catharina also inspired me with the story of some work with the elderly, where the government came to see that the work of women (cooking and tidying up) is subsidized by local authorities, whereas work like paying bills and fixing the electricity is not subsidized. This means that men are getting help for an absent woman, but women are not helped for an absent man. And the answer is a political one.
You can see a slideshow of her mentoring programme on leadership here.
When working with extremely difficult groups, like homeless people, a result of getting 6 or 8 of them to paid work is very important: the small steps contribute to larger results.
This is what Sacha van den Heuvel from Office Social Affairs in the Netherlands enjoyes in her work.
Women farmers often work in the family farm without being a proper shareholder or normal compensation. The project succeeded in just 18 months to make the entire agricultural sector in the Netherlands aware of this fact, by putting this on the agenda of farm women, their families, banks and accountants. Willemien Koning Hoeve explains why it is simply a matter of “Your deserved right” for farm women to improve their position.
Video in Portuguese.
This is the “credo” Maria Rego uses in her work for “Migrações e Desenvolvimento” from Seixal… and this works in Portugal where every single family has loved ones living and working abroad. The principle of global citizenship is applied; and community and culture are emphasized in their work.
“Tratem aos imigrantes como quer que se tratassam a os nossos nacionais no estrangeiro”. É o credo da Sra. Maria Rego no seu trabalho “Migrações e Desenvolvimento” de Seixal… e funcione bem em Portugal onde cada familia tem os que vivem no estrangeiro. Cidadania global, comunidade e cultura são pontos importantes no seu trabalho.
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