Life in the favelas
The favelas are often referred to as Brazil’s slumbs. Brazil’s biggest cities have big neighbourhoods that have been neglected by governments. People who had no place to live in the city eventually ended up in the favelas.
Residents of favela areas live mostly in informal houses, meaning they do not own the land or are registered. These houses are crammed together, with narrow streets and small passages. In most cases, they live with crowded families, which inherently makes social distancing a very distant reality. The favelas are unsafe and the people living there experience a lot of violence in their daily lives. Gangs conflicts, street fights, brutal police forces and robberies, and many other forms of violence are experienced daily.
The inhabitants of favelas do not have sufficient access to clean water, causing an increased risk in the pandemic. Since the buildings are not registered, the government cannot legally provide sanitation and sewerage services. This has partly been solved by providing a central site in a community to which residents can manually connect to the grid, however, many areas need to connect to neighbouring sectors due to the lack of infrastructure. Many problems emerge in this interplay. There are issues with maintenance, shut offs, and the water is not provided in optimal quality. Due to a lack of sanitation and hygiene, the spread of the pandemic is amplified.
The favelas, just as the rest of the world, have embraced the internet as part of their daily lives. However, the access of electricity and internet still largely depends on illegal tapping from others. Only 30% of Brazilian homes has internet access.
There is a pandemic parallel to COVID-19 – fake news. Due to the variety and accessibility of misinformation, their access to the internet does not provide clear insight on what to do in a crisis. Official sources report that 33% of the people living in the favelas think the pandemic is in its final state, has already ended, or never existed.
At this moment, Brazil faces a lot of challenges, and people do not feel secure and cared for by the government. In their eyes the president has not fulfilled his promises of aiding them, especially since he is actively ignoring preventive measures. There are many protests and conflicts because people feel desperate.