a brief summary of what life is like day in day out around shanty towns in sao paulo

1. By Sean Lewis Charlie Shanty Towns www.ixquick.com www.ixquick.com

2. Background On Shanty Towns Shanty towns are marginal or informal settlements that are units of irregular, low-cost dwellings, usually on lands belonging to third parties, and most often located in the periphery of the cities.

3. Why The Name "Shanty" ? The first recorded use of the word shanty, as meaning a crude dwelling, occurred in Ohio in 1820. It may have been derived from the French word chantier , meaning a building site.

4. Transport Transport in a shanty town is very difficult because of the houses located in the area with houses so packed together manoeuvrability is very difficult and the terrain is very unsuitable for any motor vehicles to pass on to it www.ixquick.com

5. Health The basic child-health problems in the shanty towns are protein-calorie malnutrition and infectious disease. The basic problems are poverty, lack of sewage disposal due to the shanty towns being built in on illegal land, running water, waste mounting up due to no bin disposal, and the uneven distribution of public expenditure between city and countryside, meaning there is hardly any money around the countryside.

6. Education Education in shanty towns is very low with no near by schools or collages the education rate is very scarce although they live near the city opportunities are few and far between without a decent education the children will get nowhere in life and end up like their parents. This is all a vicious circle so without thee governments funding these poor shanty town settlers will go nowhere in life

7. What Are They Made From? These dwellings are often assembled in a patchwork fashion from pieces of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and any other material that will provide cover. Usually the builder – who is obviously just looking to have a roof over their or their family’s heads, will be looking for any scraps of heavy duty materials that are available on as low a budget as possible. Anything found can be used, ranging from pipes and waterproof material, to rocks and old rugs. These houses are usually made within a matter of hours, by the man of the house and are set up around peripheral areas, where work is easy to find. Although transport is hard to find and the houses are built without necessities such as sanitation networks and electricity, but this means nothing to the poor people of Sao Paulo, who just need a roof to house their families and themselves.

8. Where did the words come from ? Favela =The name originates from a species of plant with thorny leaves that grows in the semi-arid North-East region - refugees and former soldiers involved in the Canudos Civil War (1895-1896) in Bahia would eventually settle on unreclaimed public land on a hill in Rio de Janeiro called Morro da Providenzia, since the government failed to provide any housing for them. The former soldiers named their new settlement Morro da Favela after the plant which had thrived at the site of a famous victory against the rebels. Shanty = The first recorded use of the word shanty, as meaning a crude dwelling, occurred in Ohio in 1820. It may have been derived from the French word chantier , meaning a building site. Referred to www.wikipedia.com

9. History It is generally agreed upon that the first favela was created in November 1897 when 20,000 veteran soldiers were brought to Rio de Janeiro and left with no place to live. Some of the older favelas were originally started as quilombos (independent towns for refugee African slaves) among the hilly terrain of the area surrounding Rio, which later grew as slaves were liberated in 1888 with no place to live. Most of the current favelas began in the 1970s, as a construction boom in the richer neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro initiated a rural exodus of workers from poorer states in Brazil. Heavy flooding in the low-lying slum areas of Rio also forcibly removed a large population into favelas, which are mostly located on Rio's various hillsides. Since favelas have been created under different terms but with similar end results, the term favela has become generally interchangeable with any impoverished areas.