Citizen-led data journalism from Brazil’s favelas fills historical information gap A new initiative called CocoZap uses Whatsapp to collect citizen-generated data on sanitation in the Maré favela of Rio, Brazil.
April 6, 2021
Outside the hustle and bustle of Brazil’s tourist hotspot, Rio de Janeiro, over 130 000 people call the sprawling Maré
favela of Rio home. Favelas
are considered to be the slums or low-income informal areas of Brazil. They have been historically neglected by the government, leaving people struggling to access their basic human rights to water, sanitation and representation.
While the favela
communities may be ignored by the government, a local organisation,
April 6, 2021
Outside the hustle and bustle of Brazil’s tourist hotspot, Rio de Janeiro, over 130 000 people call the sprawling Maré
favela of Rio home. Favelas
are considered to be the slums or low-income informal areas of Brazil. They have been historically neglected by the government, leaving people struggling to access their basic human rights to water, sanitation and representation.
While the favela
communities may be ignored by the government, a local organisation,
Data Labe, is using the power of data journalism and narrative storytelling to re-write these, often forgotten, histories of the favelas
, and the people who call them home. Through this, Data Labe is working to empower and uplift these communities, fighting for a new legacy of social agency and political representation.