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Around 30 LGBT people join in the activities which involve integration, respect and representativity

Basquete&Autonomia was created 3 years ago with the objective of promoting access to basketball, initiated by a group of friends from the periphery of Capão Redondo, in the Southern zone of São Paulo. Passionate about basketball and recognising that it is necessary to think about relationships in sport, the collective joined forces so that diversity and equality gained more prominence in the courts.

“We had already been meeting up in the basketball courts in the hood, but we noticed some strange behaviours that we didn’t agree with. We decided to get a group together to meet up and train, for ourselves, since we didn’t feel comfortable in certain spaces”, says Lincoln Péricles, 29 years old, one of the organisers of the collective.

The first trainings took place on a CEU Feitiço da Vila court, located in Chácara Santa Maria. The ground was made up of cobblestones, only just suitable for playing sports, but over time, they were able to give new life to the space. At the beginning, the trainings were open to everyone. On the first day around 40 people attended. Today, the activities get together 30 people and take place at least three times a month, in Santo Dias park as well as in the Reverendo Jacques state school, all funded with the organisers’ own money. A year ago, they made the decision to orientate the trainings strictly towards the LGBT community.

According to the director of the team, they opted to shine light on the LGBT people for one reason: identifying the need to focus on these people who have historically faced hurdles to accessing and being able to practice sport, as well as acting as teaching. Lincoln comments that they occasionally run some open events for the general public, and when the younger boys and even the adults see the trans girls training, it is believed that this also becomes a teaching movement of greater understanding and closeness about the experiences of one another.

According to him, it is easier for a heterosexual man to practice sport, since from a young age he is encouraged to, but having gay people on the court breaks down the paradigm and makes us reflect: “This makes them think because they hadn’t seen these bodies”, he concludes.

Francineide Bandeira, 22 years old, organizer and cultural producer, had never played basketball before getting involved in the collective. Today, he recognises various experiences and the sensation of not feeling alone. “I feel very comfortable arriving at the court. I continue figuring out how my body was different before and how I currently feel. “It is about being better physically and also the sense of belonging, with high self-esteem, at ease in your body, and this works together with the physical sensation” she reveals.

According to Francineide, the interaction between the people that play in the team is one of the main differences. “For me, being with other LGBT people on the basketball court is incredible, your body becomes lighter sharing experiences with other people that go through the same things as you. You don’t have to keep conforming to the way everyone speaks, the way that your body is going to be there”, she tells.

Priscila Regina, 35 years old, physical educator, is one of the teachers of the project. The proposal gives her a sense of security for some individuals that feel excluded from society. “It’s a space of enjoyment, accomplishment, empathy, understanding the other. For me it is as if he was a child, walking the world, being what he wants to be, without the fear of being judged or suffering any type of bullying”, she says.

The 18-year-old artist Gabe Rodrigues came across the team through a friend and says that she found a refuge in Basquete&Autonomia. “Autonomy means redemption. I suffer from depression and, during severe panic attacks, sport is my way of coping. I am practicing at the moment to make me feel better”, she reveals.

The opportunity to have experiences such as this one could be a lot closer than you think! Have a go taking part in Challenge Day. The campaign takes place every year on the last Wednesday of May. There are over 3 thousand cities that get involved, both in Brazil and in 13 countries of the American continent such as Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. Find out more!

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Team created by resident has 10 years of history and around 65 players

On a dirt field with sparse patches of grass, a group of about 30 people get together every Saturday afternoon to play American football in Osasco, Greater São Paulo. Founded 10 years ago, Soldiers is the only team of its kind in the city. It came into being when, one day, César Augusto dos Santos, a 34-year-old local resident, decided to practice the sport, but realized that there was nowhere nearby to train. “I’ve always liked and wanted to play. As I really like the city I realized that we were capable of having a team so I created it”, tells the founder and chairman.

Soldiers currently has around 65 players. The training sessions run on Saturdays, from 12 noon until 3 p.m., on the Vila Osasco pitch, bringing together around 30 athletes each week. Crowned champions this year of the Galpão da Luz Bowl, a competition which takes place in Itaquera, in the eastern region of São Paulo’s capital, the team still faces distinctive challenges in the sport. “Doing something that we don’t learn to like when we are children in Brazil, to have a space to train, to be seen as athletes and to establish partnerships are some of the challenges”, said Santos.

According to the chairman, the support from the Osasco municipality is merely permission to use the pitch, a recorded document renewed every three months. On the ground, there are no streetlights or properly painted markings on the dry muddy floor. There is not enough grass to fill in the pitch.

Despite the hurdles, Soldiers has much to celebrate. In 2018, the team came in fourth place in the championship of the São Paulo Flag Federation of American Football (FEFASP). The flag is a type of sport that has less physical contact. The players use a belt with two flags (tape) attached to the sides. Instead of defeating the opponent, the defense team must get one of the “flags” from the player that has the ball in order to stop the tackle. For the team’s founder, another achievement has been to see Soldiers serve as a basis for players of other teams in São Paulo.

The 17-year-old veterinary student, Gabrielle Jesus Vital, is one of the three girls in the mixed-team who joined three-and-a-half years ago. “My cousin used to play with a friend and she invited me along. For being a unique sport, mainly for women, when I play I feel that I’m respected and treated equally by the other players”, she said.

One of the senior members, the 39-year-old Muay Thai teacher Marcio José Onorato, has been part of the team for 7 years and doesn’t think of stopping anytime soon. “What motivates me to play, as well as the chance to compete and train, is my family. My kids love seeing me playing”, said the Carapicuíba resident.

Over the next five years, the team plans to return to three categories. The female section was removed because the training suffered a three-hour reduction off the timetable for the use of the pitch. Soldiers remains with the Flag team and one of the plans is to start up a training school. In order to become part of Soldiers you need to get in touch with the team through social media or personally during the training sessions.

The opportunity to have experiences such as this one could be a lot closer than you think! Have a go taking part in Challenge Day. The campaign takes place every year on the last Wednesday of May. There are over 3 thousand cities that get involved, both in Brazil and in 13 countries of the American continent such as Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. Find out more!

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New play equipment, rubbish bins and square maintenance are a few of the residents and yoga students’ achievements 

Lit candles become the center of attention in a meditation exercise. You must concentrate, turn your attention to the flame to calm the mind. Shortly after, with your eyes closed, it is possible to relax for a moment whilst listening to the singing birds in the Doutor Olavo Velasco square, in Vila Ipojuca, a western region of São Paulo. 

It’s a cloudy Tuesday afternoon. Empty, the square is practically the backyard of the Lapa Cecília Meireles Social and Memory Center, where the mental exercise comes to an end, one more yoga class by the 36-year-old teacher, Renata dos Santos Adamo.

The square and the classes have given a new meaning to Renata’s life, who let go of her former career as an economist in offices of big companies for new perspectives and projects. “I had to put in a lot to be successful and I wasn’t happy with what I was doing. I started doing yoga as a personal journey, and I began to see the effects and then I would suddenly become a teacher. Now I can’t see myself doing anything else”, she says.

Renata lives on the road with the small square, where she played as a child and gave her first classes to family members. Sometime later, she discovered the space in the Cecília Meireles Center and offered her first voluntary service to elderly people. With the neighboring students she developed the idea of giving new life to the area.

“The square was abandoned, people used to use drugs and the play equipment was all broken. I decided to call on the participants of the classes to think about the space and we slowly started to transform it, with the ideas of the people involved in the project”, she recalls. 

The yoga classes have been running for two years and are currently open for all ages, in two sessions, on Tuesdays. The plans about the maintenance of the square are discussed after the exercises with the neighbors, and even those that don’t participate strive to improve their area. “We managed to get a worker to fix the slide, as well as money for more play equipment and rubbish bins. Today, people have birthday parties on the weekends and even June festivals; this also gets rid of crime”, tells Renata. 

The 45-year-old housewife Elisa Yokota is one of the students involved in the maintenance of the square’s compost. “Before, I used to throw away around 3 bags of rubbish every week. Now, sometimes I don’t even throw away any, because I put most of the organic rubbish in the compost. This makes everyone feel better, instead of throwing everything in landfill, we create fertile land that will help the plants”, she emphasizes. 

Even those who don’t live in the neighborhood, but participate in the classes, such as the 57-year-old yoga instructor Sirlene Aparecida Spitaletti, praise the initiative. “It’s incredible. I’ve been living nearby for the past 30 years and I didn’t know this square before the project. There is peace here. People listen to each other and we manage to communicate with each other”, highlights Sirlene, who helps Renata. 

The opportunity to have experiences of this kind could be closer than you think. Give it a go by taking part in Challenge Day. The campaign takes place every year on the last Wednesday of May. More than 3,000 cities take part, both in Brazil and in 13 countries of the American continent such as Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. Learn more! 

*Series of reports produced by Agência Mural de Jornal das Periferias, whose mission is to minimize the existing gap of information and contribute to the deconstruction of stereotypes about the peripheries of Greater São Paulo.

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The classes have transformed the lives of many people, integrating capoeira movements with singing, games and dancing

Gingoterapia has transformed the lives of elderly people through adaptations of capoeira movements, using games, dances and popular music played on the berimbau and other instruments – in Perus, a northeastern region of São Paulo, as well as other surrounding neighborhoods. The person behind it all is Geraldo Sebastião Pinto Sobrinho, known as Master Geraldo, who has dedicated 39 of his 60 years to capoeira. 

Photo: Ira Romão/Agência Mural

Around 8 years ago, he began to teach capoeira as a volunteer for a group of 15 elderly people, in a Basic Health Unit near his gym. Upon noticing the difficulties amongst the group in doing certain movements, he developed alternatives. “It was then that I created these games that they do. And at the same time, they practice capoeira”, explains the master. 

Since then, the activity has attracted more and more elderly people. Currently, there are almost 300 students, split up into seven groups. In order to run the classes, which run from Monday to Friday, as well as his gym, Geraldinho uses spaces made available by churches and centers that focus on old people’s health. There are six different locations: three of them in Perus; one in Morro Doce, in the Anhanguera district; another in Vila Aparecida, in Caieiras and one in Vila Piauí, in the Lapa district.

Two of his classes, also in Perus, remain in his gym. In Vila Piauí, the class is held in an old people’s center, where other activities take place focused on the wellbeing of elderly people. “They discovered Gingoterapia and invited me along to do some work with them there, once a week, with two hours of class”, he states.

Photo: Ira Romão/Agência Mural

More than just a physical activity, Gingoterapia has also promoted inclusion and transformed the lives of the students. This was what happened with the retired Aparecida de Jesus Pacheco, 67 years old, who has been practicing the activity for the past 4 years in Perus. “I used to live closed off. Whoever saw me always thought I was angry. I didn’t know what it meant to be happy”, she states excitedly.

She  hardly used to leave her house due to her hearing impairment, gradually worsening over time. But in the Gingoterapia, she found something to relate to. Through lip reading, she follows the classes and establishes relationships. “I started to form friendships and to give that love back. I think that I formed my second family”, she concludes.

Photo: Ira Romão/Agência Mural

The housewife Odiva da Silva Sabino, 79, who has been participating in the classes for the past 3 years in Morro Doce, emphasizes her renewed energy. “We are lively. I arrive home, it’s as if I hadn’t done anything. I am light, ready to do my housework”, she affirms.

Photo: Ira Romão/Agência Mural

In the Gingoterapia, just like in capoeira, the students go through degrees. Strings, in the form of necklaces, symbolize the level of practice. As for the future, the master wants an even bigger legacy, and since last year he has been providing training for teachers and capoeira masters that would like to work with older people. 

The opportunity to have experiences of this kind could be closer than you think. Give it a go by taking part in Challenge Day. The campaign takes place every year on the last Wednesday of May. More than 3,000 cities take part, both in Brazil and in 13 countries of the American continent such as Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. Learn more! 

*Series of reports produced by Agência Mural de Jornal das Periferias, whose mission is to minimize the existing gap of information and contribute to the deconstruction of stereotypes about the peripheries of Greater São Paulo.

O post Master adapts capoeira and attracts almost 300 elderly people with Gingoterapia apareceu primeiro em Dia do desafio.