MEMORY AND RECOGNITION
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.
Patricia Vianna (67) is an educator and one of the important memories of Redes da Maré. She joined the organization at the end of the year 2000 to work on the Petrobras Children Program, carried out with the Municipal Education Secretariat and with Petrobras. The invitation to participate in the project came from the mother of a student at the school where she worked, but the encounter with the territory came spontaneously and continues today.
What Patrícia knew about Maré, at the time, was what the media propagated - violence and absence: “what most impressed me was seeing this enormous human potential, within Maré”, she says. Participating in the Petrobras Children Program was also a milestone in the educator's life: “it was very important for me because it happened in several different favelas, so it made me really know Maré, to know the population, the residents, a little bit of the history of each of the communities and in fact what are the demands of that territory”.
After this experience, Patrícia has already collaborated with the work of some axes of Redes da Maré: she was part of the board of directors, was general secretary and currently coordinates the articulation of projects in partnership with Colégio João Borges de Moraes and the Spanish Course, at Education Axis. As for the Right to Public Security and Access to Justice Axis, she coordinates the ‘Talking About Public Security Course’ and collaborates with shifts on days of police operations. “We see that the lack of public security directly interferes in people's lives. It is necessary for the state of Rio de Janeiro to rethink its action strategies within the favelas”.
In the ‘Maré says NO to Coronavirus’ campaign, she worked by making phone calls, checking addresses, scheduling deliveries of food baskets and cleaning kits, in addition to conducting social interviews with residents. For her, this direct contact, even if remote, was what most marked the work. “I saw how the work of Redes was remarkable, rewarding and important during this period of the campaign. I understand and would like that it we didn’t even need to have an institution like Redes, that the government would do this work.”
For the future, Patrícia hopes that Redes da Maré will continue working to guarantee the rights of the population of the 16 favelas of Maré. “I hope that we will continue our work, as we have always done, trying to contribute to guaranteeing these rights for the population”.
