By Adam Powers Newman | President and CEO
Dear donors,
On behalf of Favela inc. and all of the local organizations and leaders that make up the community collective Vidigal Vive we would like thank all of our past and new donors for believing in the work work we are doing to support the low-income residents of the favela of Vidigal throughout the Pandemic and beyond.
For those of you that are investing in the Vidigal Vive collective for the first time here is a quick reminder of who we are and what we do.
What is Vidigal Vive?
Vidigal Vive is a collective of 10 local organizations and leaders who work individually and collaboratively to support the most urgent needs of the community. Through the Vidigal Vive Collective, we map and connect local leaders that contribute to the development of the community. In monthly meetings, the main challenges of the community are discussed, and knowledge, connections, challenges and resources are shared. The goal of the collective is to bring leaders of the community closer together to tighten the internal collaboration, enabling them to support the favela in a more united and organized way. The close relationship with the organizations acting in Vidigal also provides us with an efficient channel to test new ideas and projects from Favela Inc.
Vidigal Vive’s actions are composed of the members’ own initiatives, and there are also actions that are started and performed by all organizations together as a group. The leaders and participants of every project or opportunity brought to the Collective depend on the field of action, the capacity, and the experience each organization has. There are always opportunities offered in a democratic way and every member is involved in the development of our initiatives to ensure alignment between the project strategy in question and the true necessities and desires of the community.
The Collective started along with the necessity to join forces in support of the families that were impacted by the crisis of the Covid-19 outbreak, when most of them lost their sources of income that came largely from tourism and commerce at the beach. There were many difficulties in the operation of receiving and distributing donations, and especially keeping track of families that received them because each organization had its own way of maintaining records of the donations. The organizations started to communicate and work together, creating a more efficient way to track who they were assisting with our innovative technology called Vision. This software brings together dynamic google sheets with a native cellular app to register and map vulnerable families, generate demographic data and monitor aid delivery.
Funds raised for the Vidigal Vive Collective have helped pay for the labor, transportation, storage, support in the operation of registering the residents and in delivering baskets and marketing of the campaign, allowing the project to continue attending to the most vulnerable families in Vidigal. We seek employing locals in the needed positions, creating jobs and strengthening the community.
Here is an update of some of the results of the collective thus far:
The Future of Vidigal Vive
Vidigal Vive was an initiative that was created as a reaction to the crisis created by the covid-19 pandemic and although we are very proud of our results thus far we realize that the impact potential of the collective goes far beyond the pandemic. As the intensity of the pandemic weakens, and things slowly get back to normal we have realized that we must make some changes to the format and function of this project in order to adapt to new and ever-changing challenges.
For this reason, although we continue to deliver about 200 food baskets per week to families that are still suffering, we have temporarily suspended the monthly meetings in order to reorganize, restructure and come back better than ever.
Over the course of the next months we will focus on taking the following actions:
As you can see we have lofty goals and plans for the future of Vidigal Vive and that is why we have chosen to take the remaining months of 2021 to consolidate results, analyze what we've done thus far and upgrade our capacity to continue supporting favela communities… collectively!
Thank you so much for being a part of our journey and we look forward to you following along with us as we continue to understand how the development of collectives in favela communities and effectively and efficiently support the current and future challenges that low-income residents face.
Stay safe and healthy!
The Vidigal Vive Collective
Links:
By Ana Beatriz Ribeiro | Fundraising Coordinator
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