Keeping life in the slum is a radical gesture. In contexts marked by historical negligence and structural violence, such as Providence, well-living is constructed collectively: in cracks, affections and popular care strategies. For the Providence Gallery, health is more than the physical body; it involves dignified conditions, right to rest, access to listening and freedom to exist fully. We act with practices that recognize the social conditions of health and expand the understanding of care as part of the struggle for social justice.
Active listening, mental health care, response in emergency situations and the creation of support networks are part of our commitment to ways of living that do not separate the physical from the emotional, the individual from the collective, the body of the territory. With this we affirm that our lives matter and must be protected with urgency, affection and respect.
To care for our health in the slum is to recognize that bodies get sick not only by physical factors, but also by precarious living conditions. Therefore, in this line of action, we promote initiatives aimed at prevention, strengthening physical, emotional and social well-being, and valuing care practices that already exist in the territory. We seek to build, in Providence, a culture of integral health, that recognizes the social conditions of health and creates real alternatives in the face of the negligence of the State.
Among the projects carried out in this line, we highlight the ODS Forum 3, which has mobilized more than 100 residents around the health agenda as a right. Through workshops, conversation circles and training meetings, the Forum promoted the dissemination of the booklet "Health in Favela in an Anti-racist Perspective". We also act with the NUSAMP, which offers welcoming, listening and emotional strengthening, in addition to the distribution of basic baskets and community support actions.
We live a time marked by multiple crises, and favelas are places where these impacts are felt more acutely. Conscious of this situation we broaden our commitment to include also responses to climate and health emergencies, aware that favelas are among the most vulnerable territories to landslides, floods, heat waves and poor management of solid waste, direct consequences of climate change and the historical neglect of the government. Thus, we seek to strengthen community networks of care, prevention and response, with actions that protect lives and promote climate justice.
From the experience lived in the Covid-19 pandemic, we keep active this line of action aimed at quick and articulated responses to emergency situations, focusing on integral care and the guarantee of minimum conditions of dignity. It was with this spirit that the SOS Providence, created during the pandemic, which developed a social technology of territorial articulation aimed at mapping cases of infected and suspected, identification of risk groups, organization of food distribution, hygiene items and psychosocial support.
