Santa Claus delivers Christmas cheer in Brazil’s City of God slum
Rio de Janeiro Reuters Santa Claus strode into the Brazil’s City of God favela this week, delivering much-needed Christmas cheer to some of Rio de Janeiro’s poorest children. Dressed in an unseasonably warm red suit and jacket, with an artificial white beard strapped to his chin, Santa Claus was mobbed as he handed out toys […]
Postcards: Urban garden in Rio feeds hundreds of families in former “crackland”
SEBASTIAN ROCANDIO, of Reuters, reports on the transformation of a Brazilian neighbourhood…
Brazil scrambles to shield homeless people from biting cold
Sao Paulo, BrazilAP A fierce cold snap is bearing down on homeless people in Brazil, and authorities, activists and religious leaders are doing what they can to limit suffering on the streets. Temperatures in some areas of southern Brazil has dropped below freezing, and dozens of cities received snow and freezing rain. That’s especially worrisome this […]
A church in Brazil takes on a new mission, baking bread for the poor
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilReuters As Brazil battles a pandemic that has taken over half a million lives and thrust millions more further into poverty, a church in the west of Rio de Janeiro has assumed a new mission: to bake thousands of loaves of bread. Since its creation in April of last year, the Pão […]
Rio de Janeiro’s Christ statue: “Thou shalt not bribe”
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilAP After years of Brazilians being battered by revelations of bribery and corruption, Rio de Janeiro’s huge Christ the Redeemer statue is trying to set a moral example – by introducing its own compliance program. Administrators of the 38 metre tall figure overlooking the “Marvelous City” announced a program Tuesday to bring […]
Rio de Janeiro drug shootout death toll rises to 28; judge sees signs of “arbitrary execution”
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilReuters The death toll from a police raid on a drug gang in a poor Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood on Thursday has risen to 28, civil police said on Friday, the deadliest operation ever carried out by the security forces in the Brazilian city. The bodies of three more victims removed from […]
Twenty-five killed in deadliest Rio police raid since 2005
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilReuters At least 25 people were killed in a shootout between suspected drug traffickers and police in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, one of the state’s deadliest police raids, police said. People targeted in the raid in the poor Jacarezinho neighbourhood tried to escape across rooftops as police arrived in armored vehicles […]
Brazil pastor brings prayers to COVID-19 patients
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilAP Rev Celio Ricardo has spent nearly two decades helping drug addicts get off crack cocaine. Now he’s trying to bring spiritual support to victims of another scourge afflicting Rio de Janeiro: COVID-19. “The church can’t sit idly by or stay silent,” Ricardo said as he joined in singing hymns and prayers […]
Bloodshed eases in Brazilian favelas after court ban on police raids
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation Andre Dread was on his rounds handing out food parcels to poor families in City of God, one of Brazil’s most notorious slums, in May when the familiar sound of gunfire from a police raid sent him running for cover. Two weeks later, the Supreme Court banned all such […]
Essay: Megacity slums are incubators of disease – but coronavirus response isn’t helping the billion people who live in them
In an article first published on The Conversation, ROBERT MUGGAH of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and RICHARD FLORIDA, of the University of Toronto, look at why the world’s biggest city slums are particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks like the coronavirus pandemic…