Maurício Camilo da Silva, Shine a light Fellow
Maurício da Silva began his work with poor children over 20 years ago, first with children in community day-care centers São Gonçalo, a favela of Rio de Janeiro, and later with a broad array of children and youth. Most of his work has concentrated on using the arts, particularly theater, to permit street and favela children to express themselves, to become aware of the world around them, and to gain access to a better life. He has also worked with juvenile delinquents and with adults and families forced to live on the street.
Feminism and environmentalism are also central to Mr. da Silva’s work, and he has trained many educators and activists in how to integrate issues of gender and the environment into work with children.
In addition to many years on the streets and in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Mr. da Silva has worked in cities around Brazil: São Paulo, Salvador, Vitória, Belo Horizonte, Belêm, and even the distant province of Amapá (north of the Amazon River). This experience gives him a unique perspective on Brazil’s excluded children.
With his fellowship, Mr. da Silva coordinated an important research on gang violence and youth homelessness in São Gonçalo, his home and the most violent of Rio’s favelas. He then leveraged this research into a major change in Rio government policy toward children and adolescents. You can read the research and the law that emerged from it here (in Portuguese).
Maurício Camilo da Silva is currently Associate Director of the Centro Comunitârio Salguiero, one of the most important community development NGOs in Rio de Janeiro.
