Projects

Abstract

The next two interlinked chapters now turn to the activities that non-governmental organisations in Maré carry out in an effort to reduce levels of violence and mitigate against the worse effects. Chapter 5 takes a broad look at the interventions existing in Maré at the time of the research, mapping the overall institutional landscape, and contextualising activities in relation to their reliance on the tacit tolerance of the local gang. It goes on to highlight the ‘gender gap’ that maintains a division between those that work on urban violence and those that work on gender-based violence against women. It goes on to takes a look at some of the informal work carried out by evangelical projects and, in particular, how they deal with gender-related violence. This chapter concludes by outlining a particular project approach, which I label as transformative, based on the critical and questioning lens it applies to the issue of chronic violence and how the phenomenon can be tackled. The projects I focus on are notable for their ambitions to transform the lives of individuals, and thereby have an impact on the wider community, through their work on participation, rights and citizenship.