'Glocal' Lessons on Youth and Violence

It may be a 13 year old getting his first gun and a tattooing gang symbol on his forehead. Or a young man who left school several years ago who today defends a territory against a rival drug faction in a Rio de Janeiro favela. Children and teenagers from as far afield as Brazil, El Salvador, United States, South Africa, Jamaica, Ecuador, Honduras, Northern Ireland, Nigeria and Colombia share a serious problem: growing up in violent environments that threaten their lives, limit their opportunities, and often, absorb youth into their violence.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 740,000 people die each year by firearm. Of that total, 490,000 deaths occur in non-war zones; the victims and perpetrators most likely to be young people.

Organizations from different countries combined forces 10 years ago to create COAV (Children and Youth in Armed Violence), which brings together the experiences of children and youth who are involved drug gang-related violence, or gang crime in these countries.

One of the member organizations of COAV, Viva Rio, recently released a report compiling best practices on the subject. The report is a compilation of 51 experiences, examining how individuals, local governments, communities and civil society organizations confronted gun violence that affects youth in hundreds of cities around the world.

The report was launched at the headquarters of Viva Rio in Rio de Janeiro, in an event that brought together several experts in the field who have dedicated their lives to working for and with youth in these threatening environments.

"We've concluded that similar problems and solutions will arise in most successful cases; these solutions stray from traditional responses that focus on punishment. We see that this is a 'glocal' phenomenon because it is present everywhere and because the networks of trafficking in arms, people or drugs are globally integrated, and local, because each community has its specific context," said Rodolfo Noronha, author of "Guide to good practice relating to COAV."

Just Kids

Leriana Figueiredo (pictured) is the current projects coordinator for Instituto Reação (Reaction Institute), a nonprofit organization that works in low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro with the aim of promoting human development and social inclusion through the practice of judo and supplementary educational activities.

Figueiredo says one of the main lessons she has learned over her experience is that young people, linked or not to violence, are above all young people and must be seen as such. "I think it's important not to re-victimize them. That is, when a youth enters the project, he should be treated as such, so you can leave out anything that is part of his life outside of the center. This is a safe space in which young people can do their business in peace and not have to worry about anything else, " she explains.

Instituto Reação was created by Olympic gold medalist in judo, Flávio Canto, in 2003 and now serves 1,000 youth from the Cidade de Deus, Pequena Cruzada, Rocinha, and Tubiacanga favelas. The organization uses sport as a means of attracting young people, helping them to develop social, cognitive, productive and personal skills. 

Neutral territory and new heroes

Another organization that is a source of good practices in Rio de Janeiro and London, is Luta Pela Paz, or Fight for Peace, which uses boxing and martial arts, combined with education and personal development, to promote the potential of young people in communities suffering from crime and violence.

With 10 years in the ring, Fight for Peace has established itself as a genuine safe haven in Complexo de Maré, an area with high rates of violence, under the influence of three criminal factions of drug trafficking and urban militias of Rio.

Juliana Tibau (photo) coordinator of the organization founded by Luke Dowdney, a professional boxer who started with 10 students, says that the presence of these heavily-armed groups divides the territory, limiting the free movement of persons. In the midst of these divisions, Fight for Peace stands as a neutral space for all, without exception.

"In addition to the already existing sports and educational programs, we started a new project called Maré United, which arose from the difficulties faced by many of our students to be able to come from other communities in Maré to Nueva Holanda , where the  Fight for Peace center is located. To get an idea of ​​the gravity of the situation, if a young man from an area dominated by a rival faction wants to come to the site, he must leave Maré, take Highway Avenida Brasil and re-enter through another way, "says Juliana.

Given those challenges, the risky but valuable idea emerged to start building bridges between diverse communities of Maré. The process is slow, as it seeks to address each of the communities, churches, and residents associations to gain their support, aiming to bring Luta Pela Paz to more communities and facilitate the movement of students between these areas.

Fortunately, Juliana said, Luta Pela Paz has gained so much confidence and support from the general population that everyone respects the organization's space as a neutral ground where the only fighting allowed is in the boxing ring.

In addition to creating a neutral ground in the region, Juliana says that Luta Pela Paz creates new heroes for young people, who grow up admiring the armed "bosses" of the neighborhood. "Among our graduates be boast Roberto Custódio, national boxing champion and member of Brazil's boxing team. Imagine the children in Maré, watching this great role model compete," says Juliana.

Schools: Territories in Dispute

From a distant but similar reality, Iván Darío Ramírez (pictured) brought a warning call. Without ignoring the efforts of Medellín's municipal government, which began in the 1990s to improve the infrastructure of disadvantaged communities with the famous community libraries and recreational parks, Iván Darío said today the statistics illustrate a worrying situation: currently, according to figures from the Medical Law Institute, every day a child is killed in the city. In 2000, when the rate of homicides in the city had reached the 167 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, a child was killed every 4.8 days.

Iván Darío is the coordinator of the Observatory on Children in Armed Conflict and Organized Armed Violence, part of the Peace and Democracy Cooperation, in Medellín, and his presentation drew attention to the escalation of violence affecting youth, not only terms of lives lost, but also in relation to personal development.

"We've found that territory disputes between factions or criminal organizations that dominate urban areas of Medellín have been including schools; schools have become disputed territories where teachers and students are threatened with firearms, and arms and drug trafficking and child prostitution occur," he said.
He added that defending human rights is increasingly difficult due to direct threats, and a lack of spaces for dialogue with the authorities. He also recalled that in the past 18 months, five young hip hop and rap musicians from Comuna 13 have been killed.

Therefore, Iván Darío and his team have been working on an initiative to declare schools as territories for peace. They are working in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is recognized worldwide for act with absolute neutrality in areas war and armed conflicts, applying the rules of international humanitarian law.

Dealing with parallel power


One of the first obstacles in any intervention of this nature is parallel power that controls the territory. What to do? Talk with the drug traffikcers and ask permission to work in "their" territory? Ignore them? Is it right to ask permission from a gang to open a project?

These are difficult but important questions. Juliana Tibau said that Luta Pela Paz' strategy has been to win community support. "When we enter a territory, we talk with residents associations, churches, the people. This is usually sufficient to gain access. We do not talk directly with drug traffickers. It is not easy, and we have had some problems; for example, we once received a threat through a residents association. They wanted us to talk to the "owner", and we simply left the site. Then, we looked for another association and start all over again. If we have the community on our side, things work despite the parallel power. What we do is to communicate very clearly that our objective is to provide opportunities for the young, regardless of the faction."

Osmar Vargas (pictured), Viva Comunidade's coordinator, says the best strategy is to open the agenda to the entire community. "The first thing we do is create a link, set very clear rules, an entrance protocol. We bring together the entire community into an open meeting in which churches, residents associations, schools, are all represented. It is understood that if the meeting is open to everyone, armed groups may have also sent representatives. We explain very clearly our project aims, and that open dialogue helps to ensure greater security and viability of the project," said Osmar.

Lessons from COAV

* According to several experts working in COAV settings, it is important to share best practices, as Luta Pela Paz will be doing in September and October 2011. Fight for Peace's London branch is testing the feasibility of this replication.  


* Some programs make the mistake providing support for young people on the condition that they be involved in school. In general, young people who need priority attention are least likely to be enrolled in school.


* Laws to protect youth from violence are good in theory but are often not carried out in practice. The Statute on Children and Adolescents in Brazil, for example, is one example. 


* It is important to create self-sustaining projects. Cultural groups like Son Bata, in Medellín's Communa 13 sustains itself off of concert sales. The clothing brand Luta, created by Luta Pela Paz, is another.

* 
The NGO should not work in isolation. It must work with local government or other community institutions and NGOs.


* Projects should not assume the role of the state, for example, taking on formal education. "Our education program is for young people disengaged from the formal education system, who can't go back to school," said Juliana Tibau of Luta Pela Paz.


* Transparency in dialogue with the community is critical to winning popular support and avoiding problems with parallel power brokers who control a given territory.

*
Do not give up: Experience shows that young people tend to abandon social projects. A key figure in many initiatives is a mentor, someone who keeps the young person engaged with the project.


On other sites:

COAV

Viva Rio

Luta pela Paz

Instituto Reacción 

Translated by Danielle Renwick