Maré, meaning "tide" in Portuguese, is Rio de Janeiro's largest and most populous group of slums. Once a small gathering of stilt shacks built on a swamp, Maré's population has swelled over the last 50 years. The 2000 Census counted 132,000 residents living in the 16 squatter settlements that make up the Maré Complex. Most roads are now paved and most homes are on firm ground, but persistent poverty, unemployment and violence make living in Maré an on-going struggle for survival. Maré's low education levels and high homicide rate contributes to its holding the city's third lowest ranking on the United Nation's Human Development Index. Inhabitants face frequent gun battles between police and drug traffickers of three rival cartels. Too often they get caught in the crossfire. Until recently, those who could "get out" of Maré did just that.

But one resident left and then came back. Eliana Souza Silva managed to do what to most of her peers was unthinkable: go to college. The poor quality of public schooling in Brazil makes it practically impossible for a kid from the favela, or shantytown, to pass the college entrance exam that grants admission to publicly-funded universities. This means that the wealthiest families who can afford to pay for private education at the primary and secondary school levels are the ones who get accepted into the free universities.

Eliana knew that her community had potential - the people themselves and the community as a whole. When Eliana arrived to University and looked around her, she realized that none of her classmates came from favelas like she did. She set out to create a system so that others from Maré could also partake in the University experience. Going against the "brain drain" current, Eliana went back to her roots and together with three friends -- two from Maré -- founded the Center for Study and Action of Maré (CEASM in Portuguese) to enable other young people from Maré not only to get a college education but to invest their skills and knowledge back into their community. CEASM's website (www.ceasm.org.br) contains information about CEASM's programs and the history of the community.

CEASM currently runs 15 projects and has reached tens of thousands of young people in Maré's 16 slums. In its 10 years, CEASM has put over 600 young people into prestigious, publicly-funded universities and provided thousands more with quality education that gets them thinking.

Investing a New Kind of Capital into Maré

CEASM's story begins with a prep course for teenagers wishing to take the college entrance exam, but it doesn't end there. Hailed as CEASM's flagship project, the college entrance exam prep course boasts a passing rate between 30-40%, higher than many paid programs of its kind. The key to CEASM's success is making learning relevant and meaningful to the residents of the community. In addition to the regular subjects, like biology, physics, geography, history, math, and literature, CEASM educators incorporate the local history and culture of Maré into the classroom and challenge students to question, investigate and problem-solve.

Eliana and her team knew that to build human capital in the community, CEASM had to create incentives for the students to reinvest what they are learning. Once admitted to university, CEASM employs students to carry out studies about Maré that record its history and its culture and identify the leverage points for developing targeted interventions to address its grave social problems. Together with the students, Eliana and her co-founders then develop specific projects and mobilize partnerships with local companies and foundations to make them happen. It opens its doors to the community to engage in cultural activities like dance, film, and photography. CEASM is now one of the largest employers within Maré providing good jobs with great benefits to 150 staff members. Over 60% of CEASM's team is from Maré.

Eliana's job is to forge and expand the partnerships that keep CEASM's doors open. While students pay 20 Brazilian Reals a month (about $9) to cover a portion of the teaching materials, CEASM must rely on private investments from Brazilian companies and international organizations to cover the bulk of their expenses. Named a "leading social entrepreneur" by the global organization, Ashoka, Eliana has successfully engaged partners like the state gas and electric company, the international organization CARE, and even the airport security company to invest in its portfolio of 15 education and culture projects. These include college entrance exam prep courses, computing classes, high school prep courses and a program that works with thousands of children in public elementary schools to provide them with complimentary educational courses that take their learning beyond the three Rs.

In the process, CEASM has itself become a center for excellence in higher learning. Over the years CEASM's students and staff have built a rich archive center that attracts academics from across the country to access some of the most comprehensive statistical and qualitative information recorded about the economic and social conditions of squatter settlements in the Latin American region.

Some have questioned why CEASM puts such a focus on education and culture when violence and economic factors seem to be the most urgent problems in Maré. Eliana believes that long term revitalization in Maré will depend on people's ability to transform themselves. "The change in the favelas has to be done by people from within them," explains Eliana. "You can't do that until people's basic rights like education are guaranteed." According to her, CEASM's goal is not to get kids to pass a college entrance exam. It is to offer a different type of education and training so that they can transform their own reality.

A Plan for Social Revitalization

Fabio Douglas de Brito Alemeida is one of CEASM's students who is doing just that. Fabio joined the organization in its early days. He took the prep course, passed his exam, and will soon graduate with a degree in Philosophy from Rio de Janeiro State University. Rather than try to leave Maré, Fabio dug his heels in deeper. In addition to working at CEASM's research center, Fabio and a group of three friends (two of them peers from CEASM) came together to keep s much-needed community daycare center from shutting its doors. The group of students met with community members and parents who could not afford daycare and developed a strategy to continue serving the community. First they mobilized resources to rent another space, started construction on the old building already in shambles, and obtained City Hall approval to offer their services to the community. Fabio and his colleagues from Maré provide free daycare to families that cannot afford it by mobilizing resources from the local government to cover some of the operating costs and partnerships for the rest.

Bringing with them the same commitment to education they experienced at CEASM, this group of motivated education and psychology students has developed an educational strategy to ensure the development of the 42 children they serve. Fabio is now in the process of raising the additional funds needed to complete construction of the new Center to expand the number of families they reach.

Eliana sees actions like this as an indirect result of CEASM's work. "Incentives in the community have changed. Like the community daycare center that now has another perspective to provide quality education for the youngest children. . .there have been qualitative changes in how people are living there."

Ripple Effects

Fabio, like Eliana, before him is spearheading an initiative to transform Maré. There are countless ripple effects that go beyond the number of people served in Maré's classrooms. Eliana is confident that the lasting effects of CEASM's work will materialize in broader changes in Maré's neighborhoods as a result of the increased know-how and talent of its members. "Getting admitted to the university has an effect beyond that one student," Eliana explains. "In the medium-term, it will lead to changes in the social structure of the community."

But the battle is not easy. In recent years the city built a wall between Maré and Rio's principal artery connecting the city to its international airport. The wall was not intended to protect children from traffic accidents or anything of the like. It was built to protect drivers, many of them the wealthiest of Rio's residents, from being hit by bullets straying from the gun battles in Maré. "And what about us over here on the other side? What will protect us?" questions Eliana.

With a police force notorious for corruption that seemingly aims to terrorize the community more than protect it, Eliana's weapon is educating young people in Maré about their rights and how to value their community. "People in the slums are always seen as ‘things' to be exterminated." Eliana explains. "It's as if we aren't people with normal things leading normal lives. That is an important component of CEASM's work: to ensure that people have the ability to change their reality and change this stereotype."

Eliana's time is divided between CEASM and Rio de Janeiro's Federal University where she was appointed head of the university's community outreach programs. But she continues to serve as CEASM's President, always with one foot in the classroom, teaching the college prep course one day a week. Through her role at the university and through the national recognition CEASM has achieved, she is helping to spread its model for building human capital in other low-income communities across Brazil. "In doing so, there is no recipe," Eliana advises. "What is important is that people discover what each place has - what people have and what people are interested in - and bring those elements together. . . For people to make a change, it is not enough to be a good professional, you also need human warmth. The human side of things cannot be pushed aside."




Contributed by Claire Fallender, an international development consultant with expertise in the area of social entrepreneurship and youth development. In addition to work in Latin America and Africa, Claire has spent five years in Brazil supporting the work of social entrepreneurs with Ashoka Innovators for the Public. Claire is currently completing a master's degree in Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

To read another Global Envision article by Claire Fallender about social entreprenuership in Brazil, see A New Kind of Daycare: "Age-old" Solutions for Senior Citizens in Brazil.



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