A new life for São Paulo’s poorest families

Over the last 4 years, CAFOD’s Urban Programme in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city has helped over 8,730 poor families escape the poverty trap and find new life and dignity.

William, 21 years old, is a Youth Coordinator at the Mauá occupation, São Paulo. Like many young people helped by the Urban Programme, William is taking an active role in his community. “When we arrived here we received lots of help from the movement coordinators and people who live here. If it wasn’t for this, I don’t know where we would be,” he says.

São Paulo is one of Brazil’s richest cities. But it also has some of the highest levels of inequality in the country. More than a tenth of the homes in the city have no sewerage systems, and over 200,000 households are in shanty towns. Homelessness is rife with more than 15,000 people living on the streets, and hundreds of thousands living in sub-standard or dangerous houses.
In the poorest areas of the city, violence and unemployment have spread, and few people have access to education or public services. Young people like William are forced to drop out of school to help earn money for their families, and women often suffer the most – earning less money and struggling to keep their families going.

A new start

With help from generous European Community funding, CAFOD and its three local partners APOIO, MDF and CCJ launched a four year project to help São Paulo’s poorest and most marginalised families – in the areas where government funding and support just don’t seem to reach. Rather than handing out aid, we’ve strengthened communities; training people to become leaders and helping them get organised, so they can lobby the government to direct public money towards those who need it most.

As a result, well over 8,730 more families now have access to housing, land, water and sanitation, electricity, and income support. From using new media to raise awareness, to getting involved in local government, poor communities are now lifting themselves out of poverty.

"I used to live in a dilapidated tenement block”, says father-of-three Fernando Santos Hora. “Life was hard with the children. We had only one bathroom for all the families. Today I see our children have adequate space to grow up. This is why I defend improving people’s living conditions, to achieve decent housing for all."

A better deal for women

The Urban Programme has helped train thousands of women as community leaders, to get better jobs, homes and education, and protection from domestic violence.
Terezinha Camargo da Silva helps run the Bread & Art group, which is supported by the Urban Programme. She is also one of the community narrators from CAFOD’s Connect2Brazil scheme.
"My group works with women in slums, focusing on their self-esteem, and health through nutrition guidance and awareness of public health policies,” she says. “We’re also participating in the community, and even managed to elect five women to the Management Council. Today these women are different people, they have changed their ways of living, thinking and acting.”

“An exemplary programme”

“The Urban Poverty Programme is a great success for several reasons,” says Cecilia Iorio, CAFOD’s Programme Manager. “The project surpassed all its targets, making a difference to over 8,737 families who now have decent housing, or housing social programmes and basic services, as well as access to training that helps them actively engage in achieving their right to housing. Apart from the impact on families, women and young people, the project has provided us with important lessons on how change happens. It has produced lasting effects which will continue and grow even after the project ends.”

The Urban Programme has been hailed as ‘exemplary’ by a recent external evaluation – a resounding success, and one which we hope to copy in other places. During the next phase of the São Paulo project, we’ll look at the impacts of climate change on the poorest families and on women in particular, creating a fairer and more sustainable city by improving their quality of life and reducing social and environmental vulnerabilities.
By strengthening the links between local organisations and empowering people to help themselves, the Urban Programme in São Paulo is continuing to made a real difference to the city’s poorest people. And with your ongoing support, we hope to help other poor communities to find their voice and stand up for their rights.

Find out more about our projects in Brazil - Connect 2 Brazil today!