EDUCATE IS BREAKING CHAINS
By Julia Bruce
This is the column Who Makes Redes, a compilation of the stories of people who build our organization and who work hard every day to do what we do best: actions and projects for residents of Maré. Learn about these stories, trajectories, experiences and the history of Redes da Maré itself - and how this work and the challenges faced since the pandemic have transformed them.
Kelly Marques, 33, was born and raised in Duque de Caxias, Baixada Fluminense of Rio de Janeiro, and has as her mission the struggle for the rights of the residents of Maré. In 2013, when she first entered the territory, she met Redes da Maré and began her trajectory in the High School Preparatory and the Pre-College Course. Today, Kelly is the coordinator of the Education Axis, where the challenge is to think of this right for the medium and long term, understanding first "What is education for Maré?".
"I had never entered a favela territory, despite meeting dwellers at the Fundão Hospital. But for this I was formed: working giving conditions of access to the rights of this population. My first memory is of how much Maré is receptive and busy", says Kelly. Before arriving at Redes, the social worker dedicated herself to health work, acting with infectiology in medical clinic, and also with health education in family clinics, with workshops of writing social projects for community health agents, doctors and nurses.
When she was a child, she played teacher in the garage, and taught Portuguese and English for her friend and first student. At age 17, Kelly already knew what she wanted and joined the Social Service course at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She found her name in the position 44 of the 45 vacancies of the superior course. "I saw my father in the window crying, proud. I was the first of the family who entered a federal university. I know what this feeling is to go to university, I know what the family feeling is, but I also know the weight that is, that responsibility. So, today I want people to have access to the university, but I want them to choose to be there, that they are able to know what the university is, "Kelly explains excited.
Upon arriving in the coordination of Redes´ Education Axis, Kelly says that the vision is expanded to 360º, because now she is responsible for the maintenance and existence of all the projects and actions of the sector, but not forgetting to bring the family as a central character. "We cannot think of the education of a child, young or adult without thinking about the family, and this training of social service helps a lot to have a broader perspective, maintaining all spaces, reporting, capturing, relationships with partners with the territory. We also invest in the production of knowledge, with articles, as well as partnership with the 50 schools of Maré", Kelly describes. Since the beginning of the pandemic, periodic meetings were held with the directors of each municipal and state school, where they spoke about what was happening in the institutions that subsequently received Redes´ projects.
In the campaign 'Maré says No to Coronavirus', Kelly still remembers that she did the survey of people who had no internet, seeking to give access conditions. In this movement, the team managed to donate handouts, the courses of the Education Axis were adapting, and even tutorials on how to use cellphones were produced.
The territorial development actions present in this work process of the Education Axis meet the mission of Redes da Maré: to weave the networks needed to effect the rights of the population of the 16 favelas of Maré, and Kelly draws attention to the visibility of the organization that goes beyond the community: "Redes plays a central and significant role in terms of the structural changes we think for Maré. We want to do everything at the same time, we want food security, vaccine, education, because we need everything. Redes is a centerpiece, not only in Maré, but also in the city. We have a direct and indirect public reach; we have an educational process in which people come from outside the territory to take our courses. It gives me fear, because we always go too far!"
