Digital Nomad + Favela + Innovation =
The first time I met Isis Maria she bounded into the co-working office, giant grin bearing her teeth, still in braces, and beautiful curly hair just about as bouncy as her energy. I suppose it would take all of that and more to listen to children beat on drums all day, and that is literally what she does. But its not just beating on drums, it’s precision, performance-level samba drumming, and they aren’t just any kids but kids from Vidigal, the favela where we all live here in Rio.
The education system in Brazil is such that most kids (predominantly white) who have families with middle to high-income levels are sent to private school. Public schools are then overfilled, and over crowded with kids who are middle to low-income, predominantly black favela residents, with shortage of staff and equipment. There are so many kids, and so little funding that kids will only go to school for 2-3 hours a day. A normal school day will have three time periods so if you have multiple children, you may have one child attending school from 9am to 11am then another from 2pm to 4pm. This leaves a lot of free time for kids and a giant drain on parents trying to schedule after-school activities, or childcare, or meals or LIFE!
Isis Maria knows what happens first hand when there is extra free time. With an unstable family home, she found that her after-school salvation was samba drumming. She filled her after school hours with it, and empowered other young female favela residents to do the same. The force and sound of these drums reverberates down your spine and into the pit of your stomach. It had been a dream of hers to formalize her teaching into an official school. That’s where Favela Inc. comes in.
Remember how I mentioned we switched our business model from hostel to co-working and co-living space? In doing that, we found that we were attracting highly qualified digital nomads with skills in website design, videography, photography, finance, accounting, coding etc. They equally had a passion for adventure and social impact (the reason why they chose to stay with us and not in Ipanema). When we started using the skills of our digital nomads to uplift potential favela –based businesses, magic happened, and more formally- Favela Inc., our B2B was born.
Through Favela Inc. and the skills of our nomads we incubate favela-based businesses like Isis Maria’s drumming school. We acquired grant funding through Planeterra and G-Adventures to buy basic supplies for 5 favela businesses. For Isis Maria that was drums, for our Capoeira school that was t-shirts, and infrastructure, for Sitie Ecological park that was outside restrooms. Then, through our acceleration process of brand development, website design, business plan development, and financial planning we help these business become sustainable and thrive.
For our finale in the video sandwich of “What is it like in Rio?” I give you a very special film from one of our digital nomads- Raul Espinoza. World renowned, NYC-based, Raul created this film for Projecto Vidigal Capoeira, our Capoeira school in the Favela Inc. incubation process. And inside tip- although the wording can sometimes seems technical, or perhaps confusing, we are family at Favela Inc. and Nova Era and these relationships are like family. Our space is like a community living room where members can come, share ideas, and be inspired. I love ending with this video because it is a testament of what can happen when you combine the best of the favela, digital nomads, and innovation- Love, passion, art, SUCCESS.
