RioOnWatch – reporting by and from Rio favelas

Favela ‘Inclusion Project’ Transforms Lives Through Love of Others, Education, Sports and Culture [PROFILE]

By Pauline Okyere • September 15, 2025

Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series of profiles of initiatives in Rio de Janeiro’s Sustainable Favela Network. Initiative: Inclusion Project (Projeto Inclusão) Contact: Facebook | Instagram | WhatsApp +55 (21) 964686394 and 976688714 […]

Meet the Favela Media Outlet Sharing the Journeys and Daily Struggles of Inspiring Residents: ‘Os Favelados Pod’!

Clique aqui para Português RioOnWatch recently sat down in Rio de Janeiro’s Vidigal favela with Saulo Paulino, founder of the podcast Os Favelados Pod—an audio and video show that hosts conversations with prominent favela personalities […]

‘Favela Climate Memory’ Exhibition Circulates in Acari’s Emblematic Community Spaces

By Bárbara Dias • Translation by Staff • September 7, 2025

Clique aqui para Português After its launch in May, ‘Favela Climate Memory’—developed by eleven favela museum members of the Sustainable Favela Network*—is now touring the communities where the discussion circles that inform the exhibition […]

Brazil’s Favela Community Land Trust Project Celebrates Seven Years Building a Movement Across Brazil

By Tarcyla Fidalgo • Translation by Staff • August 31, 2025

Clique aqui para Português The Community Land Trust is a model of collective land tenure that combines individual freedom with collective strength by separating land and home ownership. Originating in the United States in the […]

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‘Pedala Queimados’ Brings Social Change Through Cycling in Rio de Janeiro’s Most Distant Periphery [PROFILE]

By Amanda Baroni Lopes, Pauline Okyere • Translation by Hannah McKenzie • August 29, 2025

Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series of profiles of initiatives in Rio de Janeiro’s Sustainable Favela Network and of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State […]

Towards Historical Reparations and Intersectional Climate Justice at Brazil’s COP30 Climate Conference [OPINION]

By Mariana de Paula, Mariana Galdino • Translation by Marina Devine Guzmán • August 29, 2025

Clique aqui para Português For the original article by Mariana Galdino and Mariana de Paula published in Nexo Jornal, click here. In Brazil—as around the world, but especially in the Global South—it is impossible to […]

Brazilian Government Formally Recognizes ‘Favelas and Urban Communities’ As the Official Term for Informal Settlements Nationwide

By Carmen Nery, IBGE press release, Vinícius Britto, IBGE press release • Translation by Hannah McKenzie • January 31, 2024

Clique aqui para Português For the original press release in Portuguese, published by Brazil’s census bureau, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), click here. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) is […]

RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations,’ Part 3: Peripheral Epistemology in the Design of the Census and Presentation of a New Nomenclature

By Julio Santos Filho • Translation by Nathan Bergrin • November 10, 2023

Clique aqui para Português This is the final article in a series of three about how Brazil’s census bureau, IBGE, held an unprecedented week-long workshop to debate how to change the term “subnormal agglomeration” used […]

RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations,’ Part 2: Housing Rights and Favela Stigma in the Official Nomenclature

By Julio Santos Filho • Translation by Nathan Bergrin • November 9, 2023

Clique aqui para Português This is the second article in a series of three about how Brazil’s census bureau, IBGE, held an unprecedented week-long workshop to debate how to change the term “subnormal agglomeration” used […]

Brazil’s Favela Community Land Trust Project Celebrates Seven Years Building a Movement Across Brazil

By Tarcyla Fidalgo • Translation by Staff • August 31, 2025

‘Temporary’ Housing in Santa Cruz Turns 60: Reflecting on Cesarão, the First Housing Complex, and Favela do Aço

By Moanan Costa do Couto • Translation by Kay Alvito • April 7, 2025

Clique aqui para Português The history of the city of Rio de Janeiro is marked by experiments in segregationist housing policies, which intensified during the Military Dictatorship (1964–1985). Over the course of those decades, the […]

Without Dialogue or Compensation, Rio de Janeiro City Hall Gives 10 Days Notice to Forcibly Evict the Santa Luzia Community, Which Over Decades Has Fought—And Won—Housing Rights Battles

By Fernanda Delatorre • Translation by Staff • January 15, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On January 8, 2025, residents of the Santa Luzia favela, located between the neighborhoods of Vargem Pequena and Vargem Grande in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone, were blindsided by a ten-day […]

Tenth Edition of ‘Black July’ Connects Rio Favelas and Palestinians Against State Terrorism

By Amanda Baroni Lopes • Translation by Staff • July 17, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On Saturday, July 5, the tenth edition of Black July took place at the Maré Museum, in the group of favelas that make up Complexo da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro’s […]

‘Being a Black Woman Running a Museum Means Facing the Past, Eye to Eye… It’s Reparation in Motion’: Sinara Rúbia’s Full Speech at Brazil’s 1st Seminar on Anti-Racist Museums

By Sinara Rúbia • Translation by Staff • June 7, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On Friday, May 30, Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Tomorrow, located in the city’s Port Region, hosted the 1st Seminar of the Anti-Racist Museums Program. Co-organized by the New Blacks Institute […]

Samba Abstrato Exposes the Whitening of Samba Schools [OPINION]

By Paulo Mileno • Translation by Staff • March 10, 2025

Clique aqui para Português Launched in 2016, the Samba Abstrato (Abstract Samba) Facebook page was created to document the appropriation and whitening of Brazilian carnival samba schools, as well as to confront the invasion of […]

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In the Favela of City of God, Pioneering Elderly Day Care ‘Casa de Santa Ana’ Has Fought the Isolation and Confinement of Seniors for 30 Years

By Amanda Baroni Lopes • Translation by Yasmin Quaife • August 27, 2025

Clique aqui para Português Established in 1988, initially to offer religious support to a group of 20 elderly residents of City of God, in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone, Casa de Santa Ana (Santa Ana’s […]

‘It Hasn’t Been 35 Days, It’s Been 35 Years’: Mothers of the Acari Favela Massacre Continue to Fight for Justice for Victims of Forced Disappearance

By Bárbara Dias • Translation by Staff • July 31, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On July 26, 2025, the Fala Akari Collective and the Mothers of Acari Movement held an event marking the 35th anniversary of the Acari Massacre and honoring the ongoing fight for […]

Gun Violence Against Children: Rio’s City and State Governments Fail to Address Ongoing Childhood Tragedy

By Felipe Migliani • Translation by Ujwala Murthy • July 25, 2025

Clique aqui para Português Since 2016, 710 children and adolescents have been shot in Greater Rio—an average of nearly two young victims per week. According to a February 2025 report by the Fogo Cruzado Institute, […]

Understanding Energy Justice and Efficiency in Rio’s Favelas [VIDEO]

By Jaqueline Suarez • Translation by Pilar Boyero • December 13, 2021

Watch the video that summarizes the Energy Justice and Efficiency Series with English subtitles here: Clique aqui para Português This article and the video above offer a summary and conclusion to the series ‘Energy […]

Pedra Branca and the Energy Dilemmas of Rio’s Urbanization: From Charcoal to Electricity

By Antonio Alonso, Iamni Torres Jager • Translation by Trisha Ponti • November 1, 2021

Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series on energy justice and efficiency in Rio’s favelas. It is also the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, “Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing […]

Energy That Comes From Waste: Biodigester Turns Sewage into Biogas in Vale Encantado Favela [VIDEO]

By Jaqueline Suarez • Translation by Saskia Wright • August 1, 2021

Clique aqui para Português This English subtitled documentary is the latest contribution to our series on energy justice and efficiency in Rio’s favelas. It is also part of a series created in partnership with […]

‘Favela Climate Memory’ Exhibition Circulates in Acari’s Emblematic Community Spaces

By Bárbara Dias • Translation by Staff • September 7, 2025

‘We’re Working at the Micro Level Because There Are People Destroying Things on a Macro Scale’: In Rio de Janeiro, ‘Green Roof Favela’ Engages Popular Culture on World Environment Day

By Amanda Baroni Lopes • Translation by Staff • June 21, 2025

Clique aqui para Português Each year, on June 21, growing numbers of people from around the world celebrate World Localization Day. In 2020, the NGO Local Futures organized the first World Localization Day. Countless citizens, […]

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Get to Know ‘Gaia Space’, A Network of Women Fighting for Environmental Justice and Obstetric Dignity in Greater Rio de Janeiro

By Igor Soares • Translation by Marina Devine Guzmán • June 20, 2025

Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas […]

Between the Political Right and Left, I Choose the Quilombo! [OPINION]

By Jeferson Rodrigues • Translation by Sharonya Vadakattu • March 3, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This article is the latest contribution to our award-winning reporting project, Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro. We hear about “right” and “left” all the time. […]

A Deeply Personal In-Depth Account of the Typical Racism of Domestic Work in Brazil

By Neuza Nascimento • Translation by Fred Hanson • February 28, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This article is the latest contribution to our award-winning reporting project, Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro. This story, told by writer and former domestic worker […]

I Want To Read Black Authors: When Will We See Proper Representation in Brazilian Schools and Universities? [OPINION]

By Cynthia Rachel Pereira Lima • Translation by Carolyn Oliveira • February 25, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This is our latest article in a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on climate impacts and affirmative action in […]