CUFA/GO – CUFA leadership of the favela “Pedro Ludovico” Neigbourhood organizer and football coach of the “Football School of Areião”.
The group started after the football “cup of favelas” in Goiás. Some people involved in the organization of the cup came together and wrote the statute of CUFA/GO. I became CUFA’s leader. We were organizing sport activities with the Football School of Areião, helping with the distribution of food and many other CUFA actions during the pandemic. Our goal was to support the most deprived families in the outskirts of Goiânia, especially in the Pedro Ludovico Sector (Vila Lobó) and surroundings.
Most of the families are poor. The vast majority are supported by the mothers who provide food and education for their children. On average, a family consists of three people, but in cases where the extended family (siblings and grandparents) live under the same roof, there can be between 12 to 18 people living together. The mothers usually have a low level of education. Most are housekeepers and their husbands are not formally employed. The places where they live do not have the infrastructure to provide good conditions for the residents such as kindergartens, a police station, recreation and sports squares. Violence and drugs are major problems.
During the pandemic all these issues increased with the loss of the main sources of income of the family providers. As they are families with people with little schooling, there is usually a lack of knowledge and mistrust related to the information they receive. Hygiene and basic care (i.e. constant use of hand sanitizer and use of masks to avoid contamination with COVID) are lacking.
The state neglects those who live in the poorer neighbourhoods. This in return generates a certain discredit in relation to social actions on the part of the impoverished communities. This explains why, at the beginning, few people went to get their groceries and believed in their gratuity. There was resistance and mistrust from local residents because they were not used to seeing people helping them.
As our actions continued, the community became gradually more open to and trusting of our project. We were able to observe people with greater power of influence talking to friends and neighbours of the community. They helped spread the word about the benefits of our plans and activities by reaching a larger number of people.
Submitted by Edvan Dalat Coelho