Ashoka
Introduction
Vanderlei Paiva Gonçalves is introducing favela children to surfing in a dynamic program that offers a "cool" alternative to the violent drug trade that dominates favela life. His Surfavela project teaches surfing and surfboard repair and builds bridges between social classes by including both favela kids and the middle-class kids in its surfing club.
The New Idea
The urban beach is the great "democratic space" in Brazil, the place where poor and rich, white and black, can intermingle, stripped of the usual barriers to mutual understanding. Vanderlei Paiva Gonçalves, known universally as "Berzó," exploits this space by bringing the historically elite sport of surfing to the children of the Brazil's favelas, or urban shanty towns. His organization, Surfavela (1) teaches Surfavela kids to surf for free; (2) provides refurbished boards to those who show desire and have a passing grade in school; and (3) teaches them how to repair and even manufacture surfboards. Surfavela also sponsors major surfing competitions and operates its own surf club with both favela kids and middle-class "asphalt" kids as members. Surfavela's surfboard workshop is developing its own brand of board which promises to have a considerable appeal with the radical chic set, both inside and outside Brazil.