Notoriously plagued by violence and despair, Saramandaia is an absurd place, tucked away just behind Salvador’s most modern commercial area. The favela’s sole bright light is a small but remarkable cultural center, Arte Cosciente, where children and young adults learn percussion, silk-screening, graffiti art, circus arts and boxing. Although they have achieved remarkable results (even winning a prize for social work that was presented to them by Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, they operate out of a precarious building that was constructed by hand, brick by brick, by its courageous founders.
Arte Cosciente is supported by our friends at Rhythm of Hope, and last week, when RoH’s founder Phillip Wagner visited us, he asked our Engineers Without Borders leader, Brian Stephenson, to visit their center, in order to study the building’s structure and suggest modifications to reinforce the stability of its ediface.
We contacted RoH’s main coordinator in Salvador, Conor O’Sullivan, and this morning he came to the ICBIE (which he had never visited before) and drove Brian, Julio and I across the city to Saramandaia. Brian spent about and hour and a half studying the whole building and taking pictures and copious notes. He was able to reassure them that there was no immediate danger that the building would collapse, but he will write them with a list of improvements that will improve things.
That is just the kind of cooperation and assistance that the ICBIE believes in and strives for, and we are proud to help such a wonderful group of people.
Roy Zimmerman
