November 19, 2004; Rio: Well, I am in Rio, in the Viva Rio offices. Seems like a wild place, lots of classic nonprofit work overload and good people. Now I have to figure out what exactly it is that I will do. They have a project for me, but the specifics are up to me to.

First I have to read a pile of literature on the project – research, grant proposals, project updates to funders, annual reports, pamphlets, etc to learn about the projects here, then about how Brazilian public policy is made. Once I am `up to speed` then we talk details.

They are undertaking the ambitious goal of changing the way policy makers, human rights researchers and the general public view children involved in organized armed violence. This is an important point to think about: the goal is to change the way people think, not just making marginal changes.

Instead of seeing them as little criminals, Viva Rio suggests we see the children of the drug trade as opportunities AND children. Not such a radical idea in theory, but in practice, to a country that has a murder rate more than 10 times the USA, and in a city where some studies claim that 72% of crimes are committed by youth offenders, it is a lofty task to change perceptions, to say those little guys are victims too.

Also, Viva Rio makes the keen observation that life in the favelas of Rio is different, from war zones with child soldiers, but that there are also similarities, especially for a 13 year old carrying a rifle as a soldado for a drug faction.

Viva Rio and the COAV project in particular are open to my suggestions and already seem willing to discuss big picture strategies with me, in fact it seems that’s what they want. I love this stuff. If we can’t dream of a big picture with smiling faces and broad success, then we are just band-aids in a sad world.

So I started asking questions about how we should pitch the case for new types of policies based on new perceptions, and about what the final goals are. Are we helping children because it is right, or because it is good for society? Of course it’s both, but a clear message is more effective.

Do we say we want to help the children because they deserve to grow up with an opportunity for jobs besides dealing drugs, or do we say that helping integrate them into society, giving them alternatives will actually decrease crime more than tough punishment and police crackdowns?

And what do we want people to do about it once we convince them? Just how we will go about convincing different people of each point is where I will help them for the next few months, after I finish reading, which by the way, is much slower in Portuguese.