SocialDocumentary.net | Sandra Melcer | Life in the City of God (Cidade de Deus)

Photographer: Sandra Melcer

Title: Life in the City of God (Cidade de Deus)

Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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The favela entrance is often observed by police presense. It is either raids or to order measures (Choque de Ordem), the government carried out.

Daily there are in Rio de Janeiro new illegal settlements (favelas). A quarter of the city’s population lives in these shanty neighborhoods. According to statistics from 2008 were 968 favelas in Rio registered.

The Cidade de Deus in Jacarepaguá in the west suburb of the metropolis is one in the dust-built satellite town for refugees from the drought-stricken North-eastern area of Brazil. As good as the intentions of the architects in the 60s were the Cidade de Deus became a soulless storage facility for the underclass.

Malnutrition, disease and crime are part of the daily lives of people in poor neighbourhoods. Drug traffickers hide in the favalas maze of huts and build a network of addiction, violence and oppression. Hardly anyone can escape the lack of education, unemployment and lack of respect leading to violence and drug use - a relentless vicious circle that the children have caught hold of.

These pictures were taken in January 2009 in the favela City of God.

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The pictures represent the everyday life of these people for making the social reality more transparent to the outside world. Often, the living conditions are difficult, but people try to adapt to the circumstances and their hope is not lost despite.

The people in the poor neighborhoods dwell in simple huts and stone houses. Often they are deuced in society, but the favelas also have another side: they enable the establishment of a social fabric. In some favelas, residents fight for the flow of water, sewerage and electricity. The solidarity among Favelados are numerous.

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