Improving Rio's Favela's | Back |
Services: Roads and highways improving access to the favelas, sewerage systems, city squares and other public recreational spaces, areas for practising sports, childcare centres and schools, and the provision of clean water and electricity are among the works that have had the greatest impact.

But the mere straightening up of the narrow, winding streets of the favelas to allow the passage of traffic and the assigning of street numbers to housing units have also been important steps, providing local residents for the first time with a postal address—essential for them to feel like full citizens and to obtain loans or other services.

Although Rocinha is still a favela, it has developed from a shanty town into an urbanised slum. Today, almost all the houses in Rocinha are made from concrete and brick. Some buildings are three and four stories tall and almost all houses have basic sanitation, plumbing, and electricity. Compared to simple shanty towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure and hundreds of businesses including banks, drug stores, bus lines, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC, and, at one time, even a McDonalds franchise, though it has since closed. These factors help classify Rocinha as a Favela Bairro, or Favela District.
Rio de Janeiro aims to invest a total of US$1 billion in its internationally acclaimed ‘Favela-Bairro’ neighbourhood improvement programme. Some 1.7 million people live in Rio’s slums.

The programme, which focuses on medium-size settlements with 500 to 2,500 homes. It builds roads, drainage systems, sports facilities and leisure areas; stabilises hillsides, and brings services such as water and sanitation, garbage collection, street cleaning and public lighting to the city’s poor neighbourhoods.

It also offers communities a menu of social services such as day care centres, school retention and reinforcement programmes for children and teenagers, programmes for at-risk adolescents, activities to foster women and youth leadership, and counselling on domestic violence, substance addictions and sexual abuse. An income-generation component provides adult education and job training.