This project aims to tackle gendered violence transnationally through a series of international knowledge exchange, awareness raising and impact activities with a view to influence policy making across Brazilian-British borders. It draws on previous research on mapping transnational Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the favelas of Mare in Rio de Janeiro and London (2016-2018) that showed that 57% of women in Rio and 82% in London had suffered gender-based violence.

This highlights the overwhelming dominance of such violence in women’s lives although it is often invisible with many afraid to report it. Preventing gender-based violence is therefore urgently required.

This work proposes to move beyond mapping gender-based violence which was the focus of the original project, towards raising awareness of its effects on women’s lives and identifying ways to tackle it through civil society initiatives and engagements with policymakers locally, nationally and transnationally.

The project aims to address gender-based violence through the following:

a) Deepening existing civil society partnerships in Rio de Janeiro (with Redes da Mare) and London (Latin American Women’s Rights Service) through international knowledge exchange mediated through King’s College London, People’s Palace Project’s and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that focuses on sharing best practice service provision, prevention mechanisms, and how to influence policymaking through advocacy work.

b) Awareness raising of the role of financial autonomy as a way of preventing gender-based violence through arts-based photovoice projects with women working as courier drivers in London facilitated by Migrants in Action and catering and beautician work run by Redes da Mare in Rio).

c) Impact assessment through analysis of service user data of experiences of gender-based and state violence in Rio de Janeiro (Redes da Mare) and London (LAWRS) to monitor changes since 2016 and data capture of awareness raising activities developed.

d) Disseminate findings at exhibition to incorporate a policy roundtable.

These activities will address target 5.2 of SDG 5 on achieving gender equality through working towards eliminating violence against women and girls in Brazil and among the Brazilian diaspora in the UK.

This will be achieved by developing a new creative and policy-relevant collaboration King’s College London ( Professor Cathy McIlwaine) and Migrants in Action (MinA), Redes da Maré, the Latin American Women’s Rights Service and People’s Palace Projects  (PPP) using McIlwaine’s ESRC (UKRI) research on violence against Brazilian migrant women (2016-2018) as a starting point for new outputs.

Main research activities

Participatory drama workshops with Brazilian women using Theatre of the Oppressed (a technique created by Brazilian theatre-maker and activist Augusto Boal) led by MinA. These will explore the nature, causes and consequences of gender-based violence and the impact of the pandemic on their recovery process based on the findings from ‘We can’t fight in the dark’.

A short video film performed by participants based on their stories, sounds and body movements developed during the workshops to be used in the multimedia installation.

A multimedia installation designed by Nina Franco to give new meanings to everyday objects and textile such as hangers and red yarn making visible the cruelty and reality of violence against women and bringing a three- dimensionality to the installation.

Evaluation and monitoring 4) interviews and development of a toolkit. This will entail a ‘before and after’ qualitative evaluation and development of a toolkit to illustrate how to utilize creative outputs and applied arts activities to influence policy-making and advocacy.

Project Partners

The project, led by Professor Cathy McIlwaine (King’s College London), was developed with partners from the following organisations:

Project's Team

Prof Cathy McIlwaine (PI – King’s College London)
Carolina Cal Angrisani (MinA Creative Director – Facilitator)
Renata Peppl (Queen Mary University/People’s Palace Projects)
Redes da Maré
Latin American Women’s Rights Service