Sign it urgently, Crivella. The favela wants to live!

The practice of parliamentary activity in a City Council where one is in the minority is not always properly rewarded; defeats and frustrations are many. But, as the master Darcy Ribeiro said, "I would hate to be in the place of those who defeated me."

The achievements are hard-won. Therefore, at this moment, I feel particularly rewarded and grateful – on July 7th, after much struggle and negotiation, we managed to approve, in the Rio de Janeiro City Council, the bill that implements the Emergency Program to Combat the Coronavirus in the Favelas and Communities, which is now awaiting the signature of Mayor Marcelo Crivella.

The project arrives late, as the pandemic has already spread through these territories, making it even more urgent to pressure for its immediate approval, transformation into law, and implementation. But I believe, without fear of exaggeration, that it can be a landmark in the discussion and confrontation of the inequalities of our fragmented city, which the new coronavirus has laid bare.

In general terms, the law will guarantee residents of favelas and peripheral communities the basic rights to overcome and survive Covid-19, such as garbage collection, cleaning and disinfection of streets, alleys and outdoor areas, dissemination of information on prevention measures, access to food, health services, basic sanitation, water, personal protective equipment and hygiene products, and measures to ensure that people in at-risk groups can comply with social isolation. The Program will be managed by a Steering Committee made up of representatives from the City Hall's Crisis Cabinet and associations of favelas and peripheral communities.

It's an opportunity to reduce the barriers between the city of the haves and the city of the have-nots.

This project was built upon the initiative of a young leader from the Vidigal favela, journalist Nathalia Mendes, who, in March, contacted me to share her concern for favela residents in the face of the advancing pandemic. Together with other community leaders, doctors, and scholars from various fields, we developed the proposal, a collective and urgent project, but it took three months to be scheduled and voted on in the Chamber. In that interval, the virus reached the communities and the fear materialized: at the end of April, Nathalia's grandfather, Mr. Manuel Nonato, also a resident of Vidigal, died from Covid-19.

Nathalia's personal tragedy is repeated in the more than 700 favelas of Rio de Janeiro, where approximately 1,6 million people live. The virus is advancing in these areas, characterized by high population density, precarious housing, difficult road access, and a low supply of essential public services. There, Covid-19 results from the interaction between the lack of basic sanitation, unemployment, and the absence of effective public policies.

The absence of the state is also characterized by a lack of reliable data on the effects of the pandemic in favelas and low-income communities. But we know that, in just the 15 favelas monitored by the Voz das Comunidades website, there are already 2.510 infected and 479 lives lost. The records are registered in Complexo da Maré, Jacaré, and Rocinha, each with more than 300 infected, with Maré having 384 infected and 83 deaths. The survey highlights the extremely high lethality found in Complexo do Alemão, with 108 infected and 37 deaths (almost 30% lethality), and Vila Kennedy, with 30 infected and 12 deaths, almost 50% lethality of the disease. It is unacceptable! It is a sad portrait of the abandonment of the poorest population.

But evidence of underreporting makes the picture even more worrying. According to research by Fiocruz, also released on the 7th, the number of deaths outside hospitals in the city of Rio practically doubled in the months of April and May, compared to the same period in the two previous years. In the category "infectious and parasitic diseases," which includes Covid-19, deaths increased by 785% in health units (outside hospitals) and 598% in homes. It is not difficult to imagine that most of these losses occurred in areas where public services are not present.

The fight is to reverse this situation, pressuring Crivella to approve the law and immediately implement measures that can minimize the effects of the pandemic in the most vulnerable areas. The mayor cannot turn his back on this responsibility.