This Giving Tuesday, Help Rio’s Favelas Fight Climate Change With Solar, Green Roofs, Sewage Bio-systems and So Much More!

Catalytic Communities is a Rio de Janeiro-based nonprofit organization that has supported thousands of grassroots favela organizers over 23 years.

This year, our Giving Tuesday fundraising goal is $10,000, whether on Facebook, our own donation platform or by check*. This campaign will last through Human Rights Day, December 10. Please support and help spread the word! Your US-based donation is tax-deductible.

With your help, in 2024 we will expand our work alongside grassroots favela organizers 🌞 implementing and advocating for favela solar and energy justice 🌿 installing the largest favela green roof in Rio🗞️ holding authorities accountable through community reporting on housing rights and climate justice 🏚️ piloting a community land trust 💦 advocating for water rights ⛈️ expanding climate memory circles and exhibition 🥁 holding solutions festivals and more!

Thanks to our supporters last Giving Tuesday, in 2023:

• RioOnWatch will complete the year with over 90 publications and video reports primarily by favela-based journalists covering numerous subjects with a special focus on climate justice and democracy. We also trained over 20 young favela reporters in community journalism and further consolidated our role as media watchdog and defender of favela narratives.
• The Sustainable Favela Network ran a series of favela climate memory circles, uncovering an interconnected and rich history of environmental concerns and adaptation and producing a touring exhibition. We also launched energy and water justice data in 11 favelas across Greater Rio, data used by the state’s Public Defenders’ Office in a public lawsuit against the water utility that fails to guarantee water access, and published a one-of-a-kind Energy Efficiency in the Favelas report. A 10-week solar energy training culminated in an emotional installation of solar panels that is resignifying how a woman’s association sees its future. And our first national exchange was held with indigenous, quilombola and favela leaders from across Brazil.
• The Favela Community Land Trust program celebrated its 5th anniversary welcoming international CLT leaders to Rio for an event attended by 550 people in person and online in a year marked by continued national and legislative expansion. After Rio’s civil society showed up over and over again at public hearings to defend it, the CLT is likely to pass in Rio de Janeiro’s new Master Plan later this year. Several pilot communities are finalizing setting up their associations.

Together with our partners and through dedicated work over two decades, Catalytic Communities has built a cohesive and thorough model that supports grassroots organizers across Rio de Janeiro. And next year, with your help, we plan to do even more!

Your donation this Giving Tuesday will make it possible, in 2024, for us to fight for pro-solar policies in favelas, build out Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela green roof in one of the most intense heat islands in the city, make public our app to monitor water and electricity injustices in favelas, promote national Community Land Trust legislation, expand our favela climate memory exhibition, hold solutions festivals, and more!

Please donate through our donations platform, on Facebook, or by check*. Send any questions you may have to donate@catcomm.org. And please invite your friends and colleagues to join you!

*For check contributions, please mail to: Catalytic Communities P.O. Box 42010 Washington, DC 20015

Thank you!!!

About Catalytic Communities

Our mission is to develop models for effective integration between informal and formal settlements in cities across the globe, based on the experience of Rio de Janeiro. We are dedicated to improving the quality of life for all Rio de Janeiro residents by driving a creative, inclusive and empowering community-led integration between the city’s informal and formal communities, in which the city’s favelas are recognized for their heritage status and their residents fully served as equal citizens. This is done through a combination of education, research, training, strategic communications, technology, networks, advocacy, and participatory planning. Learn more at www.catcomm.org.