Communityeducationasapracticeoffreedom

If today Maré has more than 50 educational institutions within its territory, it's because there was a lot of struggle. To gain access to university, the struggle began with daycare, as Magá, president of the Rubem Vaz Residents' Association, tells us:

We managed to bring a daycare center here inside Rubens Vaz, on João Crisóstomo. It was built together with the association presidents, together with Redes da Maré. (...) It was an achievement of ours and of the people of the community.

Women from Maré, such as Maria Amélia Belfort (who now gives her name to an early childhood education school in Bonsucesso), took it into their own hands to organize community daycare centers, conceived and run by themselves. Even so, they did not give up demanding that the government establish early childhood education institutions.

Image description: This is a photograph of a scene in an outdoor setting, possibly at a school or community center. On the left, a person is standing with a bicycle nearby. In the center, two women are talking near a wooden table. The woman on the left is wearing a white blouse and blue shorts, while the woman on the right is wearing a purple blouse and yellow skirt. On the right, another woman is standing, wearing a white blouse and white pants. On the table, there are books and other objects. The background shows a simple building with white walls and an open window.

Beyond their actions for daycare centers, these same women got involved in the community education initiatives for preventive health developed by Fiocruz — a neighbor to the territory of Maré — in the early days of the 1980s. Leaders from Nova Holanda began going door to door through the streets to raise the population's awareness about the importance of disease prevention. Eliana Sousa Silva, at the time a young resident of Nova Holanda, recalls the importance of this work:

Foi um trabalho muito formativo para mim. Mas não era um formativo de fazer curso. Era na prática. [...] Na Sala de Espera as pessoas trocavam receitas, foi virando um negócio extraordinário. Você não tem noção o que era a Sala de Espera. A pessoa entrava lá pro Álvaro e a consulta dele demorava 1 hora, cada pessoa. Ele trabalhava com, como é que as pessoas comem: "isso que você come é legal, mas você pode acrescentar isso". Era uma coisa muito diferente. E na parte da educação, tinha um número muito grande de pessoas que não se alfabetizavam. Então a gente foi para a escola, também, conhecer a Escola Municipal Nova Holanda, que era a escola onde a gente tinha estudado. E lá, tinha uma pedagoga, chamada Rosa Maria e ela era uma pessoa muito interessante, que queria fazer um trabalho que rompesse os muros da escola. Inclusive a dissertação de mestrado dela virou isso. E aí, a gente descobriu uma turma dentro da escola, conversando com a escola, que todo mundo falava: "ah, eu queria aprender a ler". Uma turma que tinham crianças que há sete anos estavam na escola Nova Holanda e não aprendiam a ler. E aí a gente falou: "pô, então vamos tentar trabalhar a alfabetização nessa relação com a escola, fortalecer a escola". E aí eu fui fazer parte disso. [...] Cara, eu conheci Paulo Freire. Eu tive aula, conversa com Paulo Freire, porque a galera levava a gente pra São Paulo. Quando Paulo Freire virou Secretário da Educação de São Paulo, a gente foi. E a gente aprendeu o método Paulo Freire.

These experiences led to yet another challenge. If the issue of providing basic education to children and young people in Maré was, in part, resolved with the implementation of a public school network, the quality of that provision was compromised. The interruption of classes due to shootings, the lack of security policies that treated residents as citizens with full rights, and, at times, the lack of understanding of the territory on the part of teachers from outside Maré, led many young people to understand the importance of reflections and the production of knowledge coming from within Maré itself, and not only through partner institutions.

Image description: The image is a newspaper page with text and two photos. At the top, there is a prominent headline about the increase in the number of residents with a college degree. Below the headline, there is a text explaining how community college-entrance-exam prep courses help make dreams come true. On the left, there is a photo of a classroom with students sitting on benches and a teacher standing at the front of the class. On the right, there is a photo of a smiling man wearing a pink shirt. The background of the image is black and white, with some areas in lighter tones.

Changing the local reality meant changing the way of learning to produce knowledge about the territory by those who experienced it most: the resident. That's why, after the achievement of daycare centers and schools, the next step for Maré's community movement was the fight to occupy university seats.

In the 1990s, the first community pre-university exam prep courses emerged in Maré. Conceived, organized, and run by residents, these courses helped generations of Maré residents get into university. Years later, these same former students return to the course's classrooms as teachers.

Image description: This is a photograph of a group of people gathered outdoors during the day. The image shows a woman in the center, wearing a white blouse and a long skirt, holding a map and pointing with her right hand. She is surrounded by other individuals, some of them also wearing casual clothing. In the background, there are blue tents and metal structures. On the right, there is a red building with a blue and white flag hanging from it.

Eliana attended university, became a doctor and a university professor. She is one of the founders of the community pre-college prep courses in Maré, and speaks about her journey through community work and the meaning of Education:

Me deu vontade de ir para a universidade. Eu peguei muita afinidade com alguns deles, né? [...] Eu falei que queria fazer vestibular, entendeu? Aí começou um processo muito interessante de formação. Eu digo que eu aproveitei muito dessas pessoas, o que elas podiam me oferecer. E a gente fez um trabalho com essa professora Ivanise, que dava aula nessa turma, era uma mulher negra, que era do samba, não era da Nova Holanda, era de fora. Mas a escola ficava atrás, onde era a quadra do bloco Mataram meu Gato. Então a gente foi perguntar às crianças o que elas queriam fazer. Elas queriam trabalhar, tocar... trabalhar com percussão. Vários eram filhos da escola. E aí a gente começou a trabalhar com música, assim, eu não sei o que aconteceu, mas com essa ideia do Paulo Freire, de você estimular, a partir de um interesse. Cara, as crianças alfabetizaram em 1 ano. A gente com essa professora. [...] Então, foi um trabalho de fazer as coisas acontecerem. E ao mesmo tempo, a gente criou uma turma de alfabetização de adultos. Eu virei professora, dava aula à noite, na escola. A escola se abriu para receber e ter alfabetização à noite.

Image description: The image shows a black-and-white newspaper page. At the top, there is a large, prominent headline, followed by several subheadings and paragraphs of text. On the right, there is a photo of a class of students in a classroom, where the students are seated in rows, holding musical instruments. The spatial layout is linear, with the main text on the left and the photo on the right. There are no visible colors, as this is a black-and-white image.