Viva Rio started as a simple demonstration, an act of rebellion against the wave of violence that hit Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s. From the very beginning we acted in an atypical way, bringing people from the favelas together with the rest of the city, uniting religious and academic icons, artists and anonymous citizens.
This diverse group became a movement with many nuances and desires, which over more than twenty years has created dozens of projects in areas ranging from safety to education, health to social environment.
With the growth and diversification of our activities, terms such as “movement” or “NGO” no longer applied to the work of Viva Rio. We have been an oficial Social Health Organization since 2009, however, labelling Viva Rio as such also fails to account for the true extent and meaning of our operations.
All the surplus obtained by Viva Rio during its activities is reinvested in the creation and expansion of social projects. We search for sustainable models, valuable partnerships and new sources of funding with the aim of promoting peace, inclusion and justice through innovative projects in areas impacted by poverty and violence.
This is what makes Viva Rio a Social Enterprise. This is a brand-new classification, with parameters yet to be defined. In short, social enterprises are private organizations whose primary objective is to overcome poverty. The emergence of this model is linked to the search for new ways to tackle old problems. Doing things differently in order to make a difference.