RECOGNIZING PLACES
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.
Everton Pereira (35) was born and raised in Parque União. The recognition of the territory itself, and so many other individual and collective meetings, took place during the Pre-College course of Redes da Maré. Because of all political influence on the territory, his grandfather, Manoel Pereira da Silva, known as "Manoel da Luz" and had a street named after him, was an inspiration for his trajectory. Everton has a degree in Geography by UFRJ, he participated as field agent of the Entrepreneurship Census (2011), as the field coordinator of the Population Census of Maré (2012), is a professor of our Pre-College course since 2012 and current coordinator of the Health Connection Project.
Belonging to the territory has been significant in Everton's life. The first memories and feelings that come to his mind are summarized in the "street memories." He remembers how the spaces in Maré were during his childhood: "The street was empty, there was no car circulating as it has today, and I usually quote this in my geography classes when we talk about Brazil's economic growth and how this is reflected in the favela . My grandfather had a large bar at Rua Ari Leão, with two pool tables, and I played a lot on the street, near the bar. There was no technology, there was nothing else to do but to go downstairs and play ball, play kite", he explains.
All these experiences and learning processes during his trajectory contributed to Everton´s formation. At age 12, he began to work: he was a van collector, acted in a pharmaceutical laboratory and needed to reconcile work and studies. But a moment arrived in the life where he noticed that he did not feel motivated and wanted to find a personal fulfillment. It was when he discovered Redes da Maré Pre-College Course (CPV) through a poster and enrolled in the course. "I did not even know how the exams worked; it was something unreachable for me. I entered the CPV to get a scholarship in a private institution, in 2009. There were 45 vacancies for the Geography course. I passed in my first attempt for UFRJ, and in my classes, I explained about the lack of confidence that they keep putting on us during the school trajectory", he recalls. "I needed to come back and to return everything they did for me."
In addition to teaching at CPV, since 2012, he began working on the Entrepreneurship Census, in 2011, as a Licensor and Field Agent, knocking from door to door. Then, he went to the Population Census as a Field Coordinator, articulating and facilitating the work for the researchers. "We have been able to put more than 1,200 children to study from the data of the Population Census; we mapped children who had Down Syndrome to receive medical and psychosocial care, as well as their families. Through the Guide of Streets, we found the addresses of the people and offered it for the postmen, because there were no favelas cartography at the time", he reports.
In the campaign ‘Maré says NO to Coronavirus', he became a volunteer in May 2020, and later on, in the Health Connection, he began to coordinate the front of the testing and then became a general project coordinator with Luna Arouca. "It's impressive how the pandemic messes with people's heads, with our life, with the spaces. It was a lot of learning", says Everton, who expects everyone to became more strengthened and valuing basic attitudes as affection and contact. He complements that it has been a rich experience for his personal formation: "We coordinate everything, from the management of people and meet the public to ask questions."
In this way, he reflects on Redes da Maré´s work itself in this context of pandemic and summarizes it in transformation. "We have acted with a skill and a competence that I have not seen in any other favela, it is unheard what we are doing. It is not only to give food baskets, it is to put people in universities, stimulate other family members to enter. Redes managed to transform itself and to understand: "What is the urgency now?"."
