Violence in Rio de Janeiro Slum Where CDI School Resides Makes International Headlines
In the wake of the announcement that Brazil has won the 2016 Olympics, an outbreak of drug trafficking violence occurred in a favela called Morro dos Macacos making international news. CEAC (Center for Education and Service to Youth) one of the projects featured on Global Giving is an oasis in the middle of the violence.

Twenty years of rival gang wars and the fight between the police forces and the traffickers in this slum and hundreds of others throughout Rio amounts to what many outsiders refer to as a ‘civil war’. The violent methods for containing these wars have been criticized by the United Nations and Amnesty International. While the politics of these everyday occurrences play out, innocent residents, including children are caught in the crossfire.

The ongoing gang wars highlight the need for opportunities for youth growing up in slums where the prevailing high wage jobs are in drug trafficking, where children as young as ten years old are recruited into gangs. Access to CDI schools and the internet that comes with them can open up a world of possibilities for youth who often have no experience with a reality other than the one that they experience in the slums where they live.

In addition to IT skills, CDI schools through their curriculum teach residents how to solve problems that plaque their communities; communities that can lack access to such necessities as basic sanitation, health clinics, and access to safe areas to play and enough seats for students to attend public education.

There are more than 250 CDI schools throughout Rio de Janeiro’s slum communities alone where the realities highlighted internationally in October are an everyday occurrence and do not make the news.
You can read an in depth article about the current civil violence between police and traffickers and the innocent citizens that are caught in the middle here:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14090&ArticleId=345806