First day in Brasil: a day of profound contraddictions

First day in Brasil: a day of profound contraddictions.
First in the morning we attended a lession about Business developement, in particular Brasilian's incubators.
A professor from UFF and two brilliant students explained us the chances given by incubators' network in Brasil in order to develop a business in the most productive way, without wasting time or resources and profiting of gouvernamental funds.
In fact, Brasilian incubator system works mainly with the money provided by the Ministery of Technology and Developement and gives a chance to many youngesters to develop their own business, once they have found the right product to put on the market.

After a brief lunch at the Fashion Mall we split up into two groups to enter one of the biggest Favelas in Rio: Rocinha.
The guides who led us into the discovery of the favela were two members of a local association, created by Roncinha's inhabitants in order to give the chance to foreigneres to visit in the most "human" way the favela, and also creating opportunities for the locals in order to support themselves on their own.

The most surprising fact we run into was the pride of the favela's inhabitants and their instinct of aggregation and sympathy. As it was explained to us, in fact, despite the chance of leaving the favela some might have, actually only a few people do. The majority prefers to stay in the favela because of the spirit of aggregation and pride we said before. Moreover one also has to consider the difficulties and obstacles of moving out for someone who has always lived in a place like this.
The protection given by the favela itself balances the problems of living in it, though; it is for these reasons that the favela tries to grow again from its ashes by creating education opportunities and support institutions. It is on this optic that we believe that the best image of the favela is provided by all the great works hand-made by the mothers of the Kindergarden, all created by garbage, old tools and recycled items. We believe in fact that in order to achieve a great and complete rebirth of the favela, people living in it must not forget or deny their origins but build on them their future.

Valeria and Livia