Favela life is a challenge many are lucky they do not have to brave. People that live in the favelas have multiple issues one of which is starvation. Another is the tainted water supply. The most leading concern though is healthcare; there are very few doctors in favelas. All of this is illustrated in Gordon Parks’s article titled “Flavio’s Home”. In most parts of the world life is relatively simple. Most areas have a nice amount of both food and water. For people in the favelas however, this is completely different, in their lives they learn to be as conservative as possible.
For example, Flavio and his family are extremely strict with their rice, they do all that they can to effectively share all of it. This is also the same concept with the water that the rice is placed in. With their water they will start out fixing their rice in it, then they will further its use by using it as bath water, then finally they finish it off by using it to clean their floor. My past statement leads to the next example, Flavio’s living conditions in his house were kind of harsh as well—————- People from the favelas find a way to survive in an environment that the largest number of Americans could not begin to handle.
Each day they wake up wondering if they will have enough food and water just for dinner. The parents go out and do what work they can to try and make sure they have food for the next day. In addition to the parents the children go out and collect items such as firewood and water from a well at the base of the mountain, and maybe even picking up little grains of rice on their way back. The slightest things to them could make an enormous difference. Another thing that many Americans can easily access that they may take for granted is the astounding amount of healthcare opportunities.
Most of us can go thirty minutes to an hour down the road and take care of an illness or any issue with ourselves. In the favela healthcare is a completely new challenge. Diseases and infections ravage the area and with only a few doctors it is hard to tend to everyone. Flavio himself did not receive healthcare until it was almost too late for him. In these areas there needs to be an immense increase in the amount of healthcare attention.
If they could receive just twenty-five percent of the care we receive it would make heir lives that much easier. If the simply had maybe another healthcare building or a few more doctors it would substantially increase the ease of access of healthcare. Since 1960 things have improved for the residents of the favela. It is arguable that the incline in the living conditions is due to the Fifa World Cup. When the world cup was announced there had to be a large amount of change so the attendees of the event felt safe. Task units were brought in to decrease the extreme amount of crime.
The buildings were painted to give the area a more festive style. In addition to all of the people who helped better the favela in the present there are organizations looking to make the favela even more in the future by holding fundraisers and accepting donations to go towards providing food, water, and healthcare for those in need. As we help these people in need we could eventually help them make a better place for them and their families. We all only have one lifetime and one world, we should make each other’s life time a little bit better if possible.
Thanks to all of the help that the people have given to support the favela it has become a very nice place. It is very convincing that Gordon Parks was one of the leading factors of all of the attention that the favela received thanks to her article “Flavio’s Home”. The donations received from countless people led to the favelas having a nice amount of food and water. The increased attention also led to an increase in healthcare. As time goes on the idea is for the favela’s surroundings and living condition to constantly increase.