FOCUS
Promoting Health and Fighting Disease
Creating Economic Opportunities

MDGs ADDRESSED
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
MDG 8: Create a global partnership for development

OVERVIEW
Cidade de Deus (City of God) is a sprawling favela (shantytown) of 37,000 inhabitants located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Originally planned by the government to be a housing community for low income workers and victims of flood plains, the neighborhood’s population has burgeoned uncontrollably over the past two decades as displaced farmers and others stream into Rio de Janeiro in search of employment.

Cidade de Deus is composed of countless shanties and shacks hugging the side of a polluted river, small dank alleyways, and few outdoor spaces. In this stifling environment, people suffer from tubercular outbreaks, chronic diarrhea, malnutrition, dengue fever, and little formal employment. Violence increased in 2006-2007 and curfews were imposed by drug gangs and paramilitaries, impeding the ability of people to move in and around the community.

Our PARTNER
Episcopal Relief and Development is partnering with the Diocese of Rio de Janiero on holistic programs focused on health care and employment in Cidade de Deus. These programs are operated out of a community center which diocese established in 2006. Episcopal Relief and Development has been partnering with the diocese on this project since 2004.

Our CURRRENT PROGRAMS
Episcopal Relief and Development is helping community members achieve a healthy and safe lifestyle in a challenging environment. People living in Cidade de Deus face a lack of proper sanitation, a prevalence of STDs, and prevalent gang and drug related violence. Eighty percent of the population has been affected by gun violence in some way. Many of the young people lack the skills they need to obtain good paying jobs. Unemployed young men are particularly at risk of being drafted as scouts by the drug traffickers and gangs.

Promoting Health and Fighting Disease
Episcopal Relief and Development is providing support for psycho-social care programs that interface with the local health clinics. This program receives referral services for children and adults who are facing post traumatic stress disorders, anxiety disorders, and other stress induced illnesses.

• Psycho-social counseling, free of charge, helps children, young adults, and parents deal with the trauma of gun or drug violence.
• A homeopathic professional provides exams and low-cost care to community members.
• Workshops on alternative medicine teach people how to cultivate herbs and other appropriate treatments to common ailments.
• Community health promoters provide care and services to the disabled and those living with HIV/AIDS.
• School-based workshops on health care and sanitation provide students with knowledge to keep themselves healthy.

Creating Economic Opportunities
Episcopal Relief and Development is helping residents strengthen their ability to earn income in their community, and build the sustainability of the community center through revenue-generating programs.

• Skills training and computer classes help younger residents become more employable.
• ESL classes with below-market rate tuition, provide opportunities for residents to learn English, while creating an income-stream to support the other free services of the center.

Our PAST ACHIEVEMENTS
Episcopal Relief and Development has partnered with the Diocese of Rio de Janiero in Cidade de Deus since 2004 to establish and strengthen the community center’s outreach. Achievements included:

• Renovating a space in the church building for the community center.
• Providing space to other community groups for job training, day care, nutrition and, music and dance, activities which together provide holistic services to clients from the local community.
• Preparing census on baseline data on health and nutrition in the community.
• Building trust with local community groups.
• Publishing four journals of health related news for dissemination to 10,000 people.
• Training 30 young people in the prevention of common illnesses (including STDs) to act as health promoters in the community. Young people used graffiti art, dance and theater, graphic images, and common internet spaces to reach their peers.
• Incorporating health and hygiene practice into the training of one of the local beauty schools.
• Expanding networks within the other institutions operating in Cidade de Deus.
• Creating and supporting community gardening cooperatives in two rural communities and in an urban shantytown where unemployment is rampant. These programs helped residents increase the food supply to feed their own families, while learning how to market and sell their excess produce.