On the hills of Rio de Janeiro above the famous Ipanema Beach sprawl shanty towns known as favelas where the city’s poor live in dangerous and dirty conditions.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva visited Cantagalo this week, touting promises of change for the long-neglected areas, according to BBC NEWS.
The economy in Brazil has grown in recent years with its continued self-sufficiency in oil and its exports of iron ore to China. The added income has led President Lula to start a $1.7 billion program in the favelas of Rio. A third of the population in Rio and Sao Paulo live in the cities’ slum areas.
The money will go to improve sanitation, roads and housing, according to BBC NEWS. Lula has also taken an agressive stance on the drug gangs familiar in the favelas.
Samba music greeted Lula in Cantagalo, the first such visit by Lula during his presidency. Lula was born in the poor northeastern region and spend much of his childhood in Sao Paulo.
