Orgulho em Acolher | Episódio 04: Casa Resistências

My name is Kelly,

I'm trans,

I live in the Maré favela.

My name is Paloma, I'm 38 years-old,

I live at the Maré Complex.

I'm a cis, lesbian woman,

I've had relationships with women
since I was 18 years-old.

And I'm currently married

to a woman.

First because you're a woman, from the
favela, a sapatão, dyke. You know?

And we don't... We normally don't
have a support network,

or family support, or anything.

So the Casa Resistências, the Resistance House,
becomes important precisely because of that.

It's knowing that you, at any moment of
the day or night,

we'll have a place where
we can run to.

So, Casa Resistências was born

from the initiatives by the Maré
Lesbian Resistance Collective.

We started to receive asks for
support from women that needed

to stay in our partners' houses

because they had been thrown out
of home by family members

who had found out they were lesbians.

So, through all of 2018 we dealt
with many situations like that.

Also in 2019.

And in 2020, with the pandemic,
that increased even more.

So I start this idea, of thinking

that we can't take care of a social
issue of this magnitude anymore

in the same way we're doing it now.

So we start, then, to conceive
of Casa Resistências,

looking for partnerships.

The shelter helped me a lot
with nourishment, really.

Because at my home,
there are five people

and all five are unemployed.

And... It helped us a lot with this, with nourishment.

Oh, I feel, I mean, supported, welcomed...

Like, it's a place that, if we need
to come here and say:

"We're in need of nourishment."

They'll give us nourishment.

Here, I feel more at home than in my home,

Because here there's no stress.

Here it's just...

That moment, like, for us
to relax, chill out,

talk, be ourselves,

which is something that many times
we can't be, not even in our own home.

I'd say that the main service is
generating a safe space.

And the shelter was intentionally built for that.

When we have the open roof of the
building, with a big shower,

a rooftop thought out for that
barbecue in the late afternoon,

we're not thinking of a party
as a big mess,

we're thinking of a party
as a way to generate social connections

in a safe space.

To me, that's the main
achievement of the shelter.

We have a place where

women can celebrate their love
and not be a target of violence.

We also always think of the shelter
as a space of employability,

both for formal work,

and for that we have some partnerships,

but also for informal workers,

because we don't believe in

breaking down care.

For us, taking care of mental health
means guaranteeing whole health.

And we see

the theme of strengthening the
mental health of our women

as a main asset,

because if you don't have
solid emotional conditions,

or barely organized ones,

you can't handle any process of
care or generation of human rights.

So, the support here at our shelter,

it follows the anti-institutionalization logic.

So, the sheltered women arrive
from many directions

and the support and sheltering
we offer has the goal

of lasting for up to three months.

It's when we discuss with
the women who arrive

all of the steps that will be taken.

She receives the keys to our door,

and then she can come and go as she needs,
both through the shelter and through our collective.

So, they don't arrive here to be stuck.

She'll be able to move about,
make her own food,

have all the utensils needed for that.

I have the keys to the shelter. I can
come and go when I want, you know?

And this shelter, it's like my second home.

Truly.

Actually, I feel more supported
here than I do in my home.

So, if you can guarantee
nourishment, housing,

a follow up support for a woman's mental state,

she's not going to live in the streets,
she'll feel cared for, supported.

If you manage that she has a job,
you've given her the minimum dignity.

The shelter supports and welcomes, as well.
But it's not just that.

It's a shelter of affection as well.

And we believe also that

it's very important to show to these
folks, here in this community,

a marginalized community,

show them that mental health support is
possible, you know?

Offer this access to psychological care

as something that's not just for the rich.

That the people from the favelas also
have the right to this care.

And having this space here at the shelter.

I think it's about that as well,

bringing psychological care
closer to these folks

and show them they also have
the right to this care.

Yeah, it was a nice welcoming...

Like, with care.

Like, things I sometimes didn't
have, not even where I lived.

The shelter also helped me with this.

Oh, because it's the only place that
values us. Because the rest,

honestly, don't even care about us.

It would be important that
through the State apparatus

we had that specific service, you know?

So that Casa Resistências could
be just a space of art and culture.

I think that, yes,

the help of the government could be
helpful for some of the actions,

mainly guaranteeing access to food,

which is very costly
for us, because it's monthly.

Yes, I think it's essential
to have public policies

for maintaining spaces like this.

Not just this shelter, but expanding
to other places as well.

We have electricity costs,

we have expenses with the food for the women,

expenses with transportation to job interviews,

transportation for health care,

with maintaining someone here
as administrative support,

to at least help, because all of
us in the collective have other jobs.

So, here we do it as volunteers,

the whole team in the shelter
is volunteers, or partners.

And all that because we don't have cash.

In my dream, we'd have some money
to pay for a full fixed staff,

so that everyone could work
just for Casa Resistências.

I think that we's be able to offer more
services for the women in the community.

I think that the shelter itself
is already a dream, you know?

It's hard to imagine, more because it seems like
everyday we're doing something that's impossible.

But that's done here everyday.

So I think that this shelter
existing is already a dream come true.

In five years the dream is that it still exists.

Oh, that it keeps going...

Keeps going always. Because it is very good.
The people are really very good.

And the only ones that help us, actually.

In five years I want that this
shelter is fully reformulated,

and renovated.

And I hope that the house is really ours.

That we can say: "Here is Casa Resistências."

>"Its ours."

And, like, in another world, another way.

But, like, that we can really
arrive here, make some food

and cover this,

be able to make a decent video,
without all the noise.

You know? I see it...

with a bunch of sapatão, dykes, honestly.

A bunch of women sheltered together.

Not that... not that necessarily
we have to be sheltered here

forever. That's not the idea.

The idea is that we come here,
you know... to cool off,

come back into our own self,

and then go back to our home.

That the shelter is always standing up.