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Eduardo da Silva

EMPATHY IN PRACTICE

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.

Eduardo da Silva is the type of guy we can call “roots”: of his 53 years of life, only two he did not live in Maré. Edu's entire life trajectory has address at Rua das Rosas, in Nova Holanda. It’s not from today that he knows the work of Redes da Maré: he especially follows the struggles of our dear director Eliana Sousa Silva for many years. What is new in the life of this “mareense” is the possibility of helping people.

"I always thought it was very important to help people, but I never had the opportunity. It was very rewarding to be able to help". Before the pandemic he worked as a cook, but with the beginning of the campaign's actions he decided to become a volunteer. He worked fueling cars and distributing food baskets and hygiene kits; welcoming residents at the testing center; and now he is one of the articulators of the actions of safe isolation, of ‘Conexão Saúde - Keeping an eye on Covid.’

During our conversation, Edu enumerated some remarkable moments throughout the work in the campaign, especially in contact with families. He said that with the work he was able to “have an idea, in practice, of what it is to have empathy”. He highlighted a situation in which a couple said they were asking God for a solution to the moment they were living in - the two and three other children had nothing inside the house to eat when the food baskets arrived. “I have been working since I was 9 years-old, but this period has transformed me a lot”.

We asked Edu what he expects from the ‘post-pandemic’ moment: I just hope people are better with each other. Nobody lives without the other, but people don't understand that. Most think only of themselves, it is too complicated. I don't even have words to talk about Redes. Redes' work was already extraordinary, but it went beyond that, because it welcomed something that was not even within its competence”.

Edu is one of the forces that were fundamental to the work of the campaign Maré says NO to Coronavirus. And for him, the walk along Redes da Maré is just beginning! Good for us!

Rio de Janeiro, october 20, 2020.