Helping tommorow
COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro – Food packages and Mestre Manel of Rocinha
As you may all have noticed, me and my capoeira group have been running a fundraising campaign to provide food- and cleaning parcels to families in a number of favelas in Rio, who are suffering economically since the start of this pandemic. Nearly 5 months later and over 1,400 packages have been distributed, over 500 from my family and friends in Europe and Brazil. I thought I take a few moments to tell you how it all started, it has been an organic process which has taken a life of itself!
“How exactly did I end up here?” I thought as I looked around at the bags of rice and beans and sunflower oil in the supermarket storage room. “This was not exactly my intention… But here I am, and it needs to get done! Life gets real here in Rio..!” I thought before I turned back to filling the plastic bags with basic essential foods and cleaning products, to keep a family full and clean for about a week. I often end up with that notion, that life gets so real here in Rio de Janeiro, so quickly…
As we all know, Covid-19 is spreading across the globe, leaving death, and economic disaster in it´s aftermath. In Brazil, as of end of April the number of deaths have excited the number of deaths in China, and currently, mid of August, over 3 million cases and over 100,000 deaths. Here in Rio, when we went into lock down in March, a lot of people lost their jobs overnight, and it hit especially hard on the citizens in Rio´s favelas where many people work directly with the public in shops, bars and house-maintenance. Jobs in which you can´t work from home. In Rocinha, 70.000 citizens, where my capoeira group is based, the line is already thin for many, balancing on the border of being able to sustain oneself. Many people live from pay-check to pay-check, and many do not have any savings. So, without an income many people lost their immediate way to be able to provide food for themselves and their families. And without much help from local council nor the federal government, many people ended up in an immediate, exceedingly difficult situation.
I understood that times would get though in Rocinha, and so did my capoeira mestre, Mestre Manel, who has lived in Rocinha for the last 40 years. So here we are. Two weeks into the lockdown we found ourselves packing up and preparing 47 plastic bags with foods and cleaning products, to be distributed to the community of Rocinha the same evening and next day. All thanks to donations made from my family and friends in Europe and an American NGO, Impacto.
We filled the bags with the basics. Just the pure basic. Rice, beans. Salt, sugar. Cooking oil, flour. Pasta, a small pack of sardines. One pre-made pasta sauce. A small packet of coffee, a big pack of biscuits, and some cleaning products. That is it. Not a piece of vegetable. Nor fruit. Not even a piece of garlic, in this country where you flavour both the beans, and the rice with garlic. But not today. No room for garlic in these food packages.
Three of us filled the bags while the store manager oversaw the process and kept shouting at us,
“Did you put in the sugar? Did you remember the flour? The pasta sauce!?” Meanwhile my capoeira mestre, who is the heart and soul-, and true motor behind this all, ran around with his mask around his neck as suppose to over his face, filming us, taking photos and making movie after movie thanking Kamila and Doctora Ursula and so and so, and so and so, for their help. Every so often he handed over the phone for my friend to help him to tag the people on Facebook, and regularly shouted over at me:
“Energia! Agora voce agradece sua famila! Em inglês!”
“Energia, now say thank you to your family! In English!” and I smiled into his camera and said , again, in Swedish my thank you to my family and friends back in Europe. Without them Non of this would be possible!! So it is! We cannot do anything without the donations. None of us can provide more than our time and labour. Not even Mestre, who started this campaign without backing from anyone, without money in his bank account to put into this. He did it anyway. Cause someone had to. He put up some moderate announcements on Facebook and Instagram and in our WhatsApp group that he would be at the Sport centre where we usually train capoeira, to receive donations. From whom, I don’t know! But there is something with Mestre Manel, he can make things happened! And he has the ability to create something from Nothing! So here we are, the second handout already this week, 50 bags on Tuesday and 47 bags today…
On this Saturday, people from the organisation Impacto (https://www.goimpacto.com) have helped with donations, just as me. I had started to spread the word to Europe and ask everyone near and far if anyone can spare some dims for our food package hand-out. No one can do everything, but we can all do something, and this is truly a community project! A proof that a little bit of communal effort goes a long way! I am running the donation campaign among in and outside of Brazil, others from the group help to back the bags and carry them back to the NGO, while even others help to hand out the bags in the weekends. So many of the members of the group has been involved in one way or another.
Another man comes in to the storage room with bags filled of cleaning products and we put one in each bag. A soap. A bottle of washing up liquid. 1 litre of disinfection. Life saving in the Corona virus time.
I look at the food packages, for a moment. Bitter sweet feeling in me. Happy to see the room full of packs ready to give to the people who needs it! Yet also, the feeling it in my gut, the knowing, that for every pack we give, three families will be without. And as great as it is, already, I hear the whisper in me “what about next week..? This want last so long..”. And in a culture of garlic flavoured meat and rice, where the nature is full of nutrition fruits and vegetable, we only offer dried goods. Not even milk for the kids. Cesta basicas, (cesta basicas = basic nest) is what is says, the basics. To feed as many as possible, for as long as possible. When I bring up my idea of at least a garlic in there, my friend look at me for a long time before he ask me back:
“What is more filling Energia, garlic or beans?”
Enough said. This is not about the taste, but to fill empty stomachs.
Mestre has been living in Rocinha for the last 40 years. Not only does he know everyone, he also knows what life can be like here, and that the line is really thin between getting by and poverty. Even under normal circumstances it can be hard to get by. Our capoeira group, Acorda Capoeira is registered as a charity since the end of last year. In addition to daily capoeira classes, we also offer classes to children in music, English, theatre among other things in the newly opened Centro Cultural, the headquarter for the NGO. However, since the lockdown, the NGO is no longer used as a space to give classes to children but as the storage room for food packages, and from where we have done the majority of handouts.
For a long time, the capoeira group has basically been running as a community project. Mestre does not charge for his classes in Rocinha, but demand discipline and commitment in return for his time and efforts. He takes it very seriously, though he knows, and has proven over and over again, how capoeira is an opportunity to work, an alternative form of education which can give you a profession, a salary and a chance to travel. Various of the boys and girls that I am training with have had their first opportunities to travel outside of Brazil because of the group! And 12-13 from the group are professional as teachers, dancers, and performers of capoeira, making a living of capoeira thanks to this group.
For me, when we went into quarantine, knowing the fragility of this society, and the already weak infrastructure, it felt like I held my breath for an entire week, scared for what was about to come. Would we have food? The well known toilet paper crisis!? Some friends lost their jobs immediately, would I too? And in the midst of that, I saw Mestre putting up posts that he was happy to receive donations to those who already lost their jobs and income. Where does he gets his energy from?! 8 days in to the lockdown, when I had managed to transfer my work to online, and there were still both food and toilet paper in the store, I felt as if I could take my first deep breath again. And with that deep breath, as I released the air all the way down from the belly, I looked around and asked myself,
“How can I help?” And here we are!
Little did I know then that this would be the first handout of many, many! I thought it was fantastic that me, my family and a handful of friends could buy 30 food packages! Now, we have bought and distributed close to 500 already! And unfortunately, people are still in need of support here since many are still without work and finds it hard to support their families and put food on the table.
However, little did I know that then, this day at the end of March. After a few hours in the supermarket we carried all the bags back to the NGO, Acorda Capoeira Centro Cultural in Rocinha. It was already getting quite late, we were tired and dirty after the packing and carrying. A girl came around who had heard that we would be handing out cesta basicas and wondered if she could get one for her family?
“What time is it?” Mestre asked.
“17.15.”
” I haven´t had lunch yet” he said, ” and I really need a shower! Can you come back at 18!?” She nodded and walked off, excited to soon have food to bring back to her family. In that moment Mestre looked up at me. Tired, dirty, obviously hungry.
“Energia,” he said “this is Everything! Can you imagine how many people we can feed today!??!”
Yes Mestre, I know that you are right. This is Everything! Does words, coming from Mestre Manel who usually shout out his orders and comments on our trainings in a military fashion, really, truly touched my heart..!
It is hard to comprehend, the impact we have had, and that we do still have!
All I know, is that I do find it hard to grasp how this, All of This is even possible!! People across the ocean is carrying so much about their unknown brothers and sisters in Rio´s favelas, that here we are, handing out food packs upon food packs. It saddens me deeply that it is necessary, though, on the other hand, I am deeply touched by all the generosity and solidarity that I have seen through this campaign! As the middle man, I get to see the happiness of the receivers and the generosity of the givers! It is a blessing to be able to do this and be a part of this Beautiful, rather incredible, unexpected Team work of solidarity across borders, nations, ages and social classes. It has, undeniable been a lot of work to maintain this machine, but I can honesty tell you, what a true blessing it is to be a part of this, and to see the Magic unfold around me when we can transfer the donations into food and cleaning baskets!
To all of you who has supported us, with donations, your time, encouraging words, spreading the word, your positive thoughts and blessings, Thank You! Non of this would be possible without you!! We can only continue this work because you are supporting us!! So from the bottom of my heart, and also on behalf of Mestre Manel, Monitora Fabiana, Grupo Acorda Capoeira and As Meninas da Acorda Capoeira, Thank you for all your support, generosity and solidarity!!! All of this is only possible because of You so Thank you!
Thank you !
Thank you!
We will continue as long as we can and donations are gratefully received at
Paypal.me/sofiasunden
and Swish: 704398769
Thank you!
Mestre Manel da Rocinha, Founder of Acorda Capoeira, the heart, soul and engine behind this huge effort to support Rocinha and other favelas.
