Donations through individuals or Pack for a Purpose is a big part of our work. There will always be people who are critical of others they don't know. I have been involved in community activities here in Rocinha for about 11 years. My belief has always been, that in my work, there needs to be the service or voluntary aspect. I have no problems showing the work I do. I understand there are ethical questions that people may ask about how can tourism help a community like Rocinha. I am not the only one confronted with this legitimate question. Anyone that works in this community deals with th ..read more

It's always awesome to receive people from other countries who want to experience Rocinha and contribute to projects that help the residents. I never imagined that I would be involved in this, but it happened kind of by accident. I have known "Nandy" for a long time. I have always used his services when I needed business cards or flyers done. Nandy is reliable and his work is good.  About a year ago he approached me about English classes and I told him that it was difficult to organize and set this kind of thing up because you need a place that is like a classroom, books, and how is i ..read more

Bruno and his new Koral Gi that he will use for upcoming competitions in 2018 I first met Bruno Silva when he was training at AriFight, which is a very small Martial Arts school located at the top of Rocinha. The school was started by Aritano Barbosa who also has a school in Botafogo. The school in Rocinha is overseen by "Ari" but is run by Alexandre Gomes and Bruno is now teaching there. The school provides Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai classes for adults and youth and children.  Aritano "Ari" Barbosa director and owner of AriFight I visited the project about 8 months ago and took ..read more

I have been more focused on improving my health and losing weight than contributing to the blog lately. I need to start writing more. In March of this year, I went up to Andre's project Crianca do Futuro to drop off some donations that I had here in the house. I brought some wristbands which everybody loves and wants. Everyday when walking in the community at least 10 times I get asked for wristbands. I have run out so I need to get more of them. The younger kids (kids aged 8-13) play on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-8:30pm so I decided it would be a good idea to bring a bunch and hand th ..read more

Our Partnerships Are Growing We originally started with our project Spin Rocinha. Our DJ school has been open and running for almost 7 years. Last year we joined up with “Projeto Flor e Xavier”, which is a homeless shelter for abandoned animals. We are linked with many projects here that are open to receiving volunteers who would like to contribute in some way in Rocinha. Volunteers leave a lasting impact on the people they help. The people that live in Rocinha will most likely never have the ability to get on a plane to travel. Their only contact with foreigners is through volunteers. T ..read more

This camera has a owner that is missing it dearly! We WILL find its owner! I remember seeing this film "Pay it Forward" with Haley Joel Osment as the main character in a story about being nice to each other. Many think of stories like this to be corny or not realistic but there are those of us who hold this idea dear. I am one of them. In times of trouble I try to be optimistic. With the way the world is and humanity seeming to be so crappy, I see the good in people. The media loves to keep people in fear with 90% of the stories being negative. What does this say about humans? Do people re ..read more

With all the negative press concerning Rocinha in the last few months, There are still plenty of positive things going on here. And I am not the only one. There are many people who have overcome many obstacles to become successful here. After collecting donations in the last 3 months, I am finally getting around to distributing many that have been here in the Dj School. I have always been searching for those people who are in need so, it may take time, but eventually I find the right people. Many people and organizations here already get help and I prefer to find those who are in dire n ..read more

Some months back we had SA Wardega and his crew filming in Rocinha. Now another crew from Poland. It's great to see so much positive interest in our community. Last week we had the opportunity to meet some interesting people from Poland. They are travelling through South America in a mini bus. They are documenting their travels and they are going to start a youtube channel. They decided they wanted to have some special days in the favelas. We made a 2 days tour for them. The first day we focused on flying drones and filming the main street activity. The second day we focused on the alleyw ..read more

Back a few months ago I wrote about ETF and NGO's organizing and running entrepreneurship type programs for residents in Rocinha. Last night was the end of the Novos Lideres Empreendedores project and awards were given. The project ran a "Shark Tank" like competition where each person has to present their idea of the business that they wanted to start and explain why they should receive funding. After being part of this project I decided that I need to take care of other things and I just wanted to help out, not compete. I already have a successful business and thought that the program co ..read more

A group of Americans from L.A., Chicago and New York were in Rio for a bachelor party and wanted to visit Rocinha with the special interest in playing football (soccer) with the locals, so we set it up. The Americans decided they would wear Flamengo Shirts (red & black) honoring one of Rio's most popular teams. They played well and gave the favela boys a run but lost 9-7.  How Tourism in the Favela can make a difference. I just had a person email me and ask me about how this kind of tourism can benefit the favela. I can only talk about what we do. What others do is not of our con ..read more