INSPIRING MOBILIZATION
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.
Luciene de Andrade (36) arrived at Maré in 2005 to develop a volunteer work at Cleia Santos de Oliveira Community Day Care, public facility present in Maré due to the strong community organization and mobilization of the territory. This mobilization delighted Luciene when she visited the set of Favelas da Maré: “the wealth of exchanges between the youth, among the residents, the power that existed in the community struggle was my great fascination with this place”.
The nursery's close relationship with Redes da Maré made it possible for her to learn about the organization's courses, actions and opportunities. She participated in the computer course, body awareness class and ballroom dancing at Centro de Artes da Maré, and the Pre-College Course. In 2014, she was invited to join the staff of the Lima Barreto Library, where she works as coordinator.
Although the relationship with Maré has existed since the beginning of voluntary work with the daycare center, it was only in 2016 that Luciene decided to come and live in Maré, in Nova Holanda. But it was during the campaign ‘Maré says NO to the Coronavirus’ that Luciene accessed many places in Maré. She says that, before, she circulated practically within the same axis, through the streets of Parque União, Nova Holanda and Rubens Vaz. “The campaign made me realize how rich Maré is in its diversity, but I also felt people's suffering, the social vulnerability in which many families find themselves was evident.”
For Luciene, accessing these poorer families, who already suffered from the lack of rights, also highlighted the importance of the work of Redes da Maré and the organization's legacy, which is very important for the territory of Maré. “Being part of this is extremely rewarding and motivating as a human being.” In the campaign, Luciene worked delivering alcohol gel to homes, delivering food baskets and hygiene kits, she did social interviews by phone and in person. For her it was remarkable the certainty that all the work, even with the physical and psychological tiredness in the middle of the pandemic, was essential: "Today we scream for the vaccine, but at that moment the families screamed because they were hungry".
For the future, she hopes that this unequal and incoherent world will be more just, more egalitarian. That people can have access to basic rights, which are still denied today, such as the right to food. “That the favela population can access places that are now denied and people can value simple things in life, such as being with friends and family, having a more welcoming and less selfish look”.
