Gerando Falcões passes baton to favela residents in SP – 03/23/2024 – Market

The favela management model of the NGO Gerando Falcões enters a new phase of expansion starting this year and, for the first time, will pass the baton to the residents of one of the areas served.

Named Favela 3D, the project began to be implemented more than two years ago in Ferraz de Vasconcelos, a municipality in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, with an investment of R$7 million. The resources were used to tear down shacks, build temporary houses, pave the streets, install solar streetlights and other improvements in an area that covers around 200 families.

The investment is relatively low, compared to the NGO’s model project, Favela Marte, started in São José do Rio Preto (SP), which involves almost R$60 million, with complete sanitation and a longer implementation period.

The difference in the case of Ferraz de Vasconcelos is that the houses operate with a biosanitation structure to collect waste and were not built from masonry, but from plates made from recycled toothpaste tubes, a cheaper material, whose useful life revolves around around ten years.

The idea is that, within this period, residents will achieve what Edu Lyra, founder of Gerando Falcões, calls a “passage to dignity”, when they will be able to rebuild their facilities. “As they evolve socially, they have the option of building a masonry house,” he says.

Along with the investment, the NGO carried out, in partnership with large companies, income generation, health, education and indicator evaluation programs. Fleury, which installed a telemedicine booth, and Google, with the digital CEP to facilitate the arrival of orders, are among the partner companies.

Today, those who walk through the neighborhood see houses painted with colorful murals, flower gardens and plaques with old photos to remind them of the degraded scenery that remained in the past.

When the project arrived in Ferraz de Vasconcelos, the name of the favela was Boca do Sapo. In the first meetings, the residents held an assembly and decided to change it to Favela dos Sonhos, in search of a less stigmatized and more inspiring title for its inhabitants.

The process began with the registration of families in a program called Decolagem, which works as a kind of Gerando Falcões census, recording data such as daycare enrollment, access to basic products, bathroom at home, daily meals, domestic violence and risk area . The evolution of each family’s indexes is monitored by a group of NGO mentors.

“Sometimes, people don’t have information about their rights. They don’t know how to go to Poupatempo to get their ID or they don’t have the money to take the bus and go there. They don’t know how to get into Bolsa Família. The mentor provides knowledge about citizenship, rights and duties”, says Lyra.

The transmission of management to residents, which is called weaning, should end in July and will be carried out with the leadership of a group of women from the neighborhood, who underwent training to create a local NGO and take care of maintaining social development.

The idea is for the group itself to monitor cases of children who left daycare, parents who lost their jobs or other situations.

The other front of weaning is the janitorial department, named Zela Favela, also managed by residents. In it, the resident pays a monthly fee to take care of cases such as a broken roof, biosanitation problems and other maintenance.

“If this works, the case will be perfect. It’s the transformation that the favela has always dreamed of, one of lasting dignity, capable of being sustained and permanent”, says Lyra.

According to him, Gerando Falcões’ expansion plan is already raising funds for projects planned in Belo Horizonte, Guarulhos, Curitiba and Itaquaquecetuba (SP). The Decolagem Program will also be expanded independently to be taken to favelas that are not undergoing Favela 3D renovations. The idea is to serve 15 thousand families in 2024.

Favela dos Sonhos also served as one of the pilots of the As Mara project, a social business model for generating female income that collects donated clothes and shoes to resell in different communities.

The operation is based on a distribution center that collects donations from companies and individuals. Then, she selects, makes adjustments, prices, labels and distributes among the women in the project, who sell the products. The revenue generated pays the resellers’ commission and the cost of the operation. Unsold parts return to the center to be sent to other sellers, circulating the stock in different locations.

According to Mayara Lyra, social business director at Gerando Falcões, the network involves 600 women in partnership with more than 20 NGOs. “This year, the goal is to capture 3 million items. We have a large donation scale and can increase the useful life of pieces, contributing to circular fashion and crossing a climate agenda with overcoming poverty”, he says.

One of the As Mara participants, Jaqueline Silva, states that she took a professional eyebrow design course, and the profit from the sale of the clothes helped her buy a chair to serve her clients at home, allowing her to balance work with her routine schedule. treatment for her son, who has cerebral palsy. “When clients come to get their eyebrows done, I show them the clothes,” she says.

For Pauliana Leite, who is a social leader in Favela dos Sonhos and will be involved in the process of passing the baton, an important part of the result sought is the advancement of self-esteem. She remembers that, before participating in the project, she was afraid to communicate, take her son to the doctor or enter the supermarket.

“It wasn’t shyness. It was very low self-esteem. Poverty comes in many forms. It’s not just money. There was no lack of food in my house, but I felt something. I waited for someone to answer for me. Today, people ask me how I managed learning to talk to so many people. It’s one step at a time: finding who helps you, who says you can and recognize your rights”, he says.