Sao Paulo & The Eagle Project

Flying into Sao Paulo brought the sudden realisation that this was a MASSIVE city. For some reason I had imagined that Rio and Sao Paulo were about the same size but seeing buildings and blocks of high rise flats and offices as far as the eye could see from 2000 feet soon changed that.  I've since found out that Rio's 6 million population is dwarfed by Sao Paulo's 11+ million inhabitants (some say 20 million).

George & Cally (who we're staying with in Sao Paulo) are old friends of ours from many years ago. They run an amazing charity called 'The Eagle Project' (see www.theeagleproject.org) helping transform the lives of young offenders and their families in Sao Paulo.

Cally picked us up from the airport and drove us back to their house which was  over 2 hour's drive. It turns out we picked the furthest airport from their house and traffic in Sao Paulo is awful! She told us the schedule she'd planned for us this week and it meant we'd get to see a fair bit of their work AND a lot of Sao Paulo too so we were very happy.

After booking our flights to our next and last Brazilian destination (Iguazu Falls) we retired to bed and for the first time in my life got into a bed with a mosquito net. At this point, exclaiming that it was "just like a camp" completely rained on Lauren's parade of it being somehow 'romantic'!!

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Our first full day in Sao Paulo started with a trip to meet Isabel, the mother of 4 sons, the eldest of whom (Alan) has been in and out of youth prison since his early teens. 

Isabel lives under a bridge in the centre of Sao Paulo with 2 of her sons (11 & 13yrs) and has done for six years. She has built herself a makeshift house there and welcomed us with open arms.

This is the 'room' where the whole family sleep. We were sat on the 'bed' and as you can see, there was barely room for us to sit there, let alone anyone lie down.

George & Cally have worked with Alan in youth prison previously. A major part of their strategy is to regularly visit the offender's family to help support them and assist them in creating an environment that encourages the boys not to re offend. Such a high percentage of young boys do re-offend, the key is to change their mindset and get the family on board too.

If the re offending circle isn't broken by the time they're 18, they will get thrown in the adult prison where there are often dozens of people in every cell with no beds and not enough room to all lie 

down so they have to take it in turns to lie down to rest through the night. The conditions just do not bear thinking about.

Alan has just turned 18, has sadly re-offended, is currently in the youth prison and Isabel is petrified that he will end up being transferred to the adult prison where gangs, drugs, corruption and extreme violence are rife.

We spent a couple of hours with Isabel and her boys, delivering a food parcel and taking her shopping for a few essentials which clearly meant the world to her.

After some lunch we walked around a few shops but I couldn't shake the thought of the boy I'd never met. Alan. If he didn't stop offending on his release, he would 100% now end up in the adult prison where he would learn from hardened criminals and probably suffer daily beatings from both the other inmates and the guards. On his release, the chance of him getting involved in even more serious crime was even more likely.

His younger brothers, unless intervention happens, have a very high chance of following in his footsteps. Their mother (Isabel) has little or no money. Without money she can't work as she can't call recycling centres and see if they have work for her. This creates a need and often the sons (especially the eldest) have to provide so they and the family can eat. It's a vicious circle.

Isabel had not been able to work as she had issues with her foot. The visits from The Eagle Project offer emoitional support as well as practical support. An example of this when we visited was being able to lend Cally's phone to Isabel to find out where and if work is available. Without a phone she would not have been able to do this. 

George and Cally's work here is astounding and SO NECESSARY. I have a feeling our connection with them is only going to become stronger when we leave here.

Tomorrow we get to visit some of the boys that The Eagle Project support at the Youth Prison. It's going to be an experience for sure.