Exhausting journeys, which start at dawn and end only at dawn, working amid thousands of revelers at temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. It is at Rio Carnival that many walking workers make a half foot and guarantee the family’s livelihood.
The work, which is already tiring for adults alone, is even more for mothers who do not have a support network and need to take young children to the blocks.
Having a safe place to leave their children while working is an old demand from workers. In 2024, this began to leave the paper, but still on a small scale. This year, the measures will be expanded, serving more children.
The Rio Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance (SMAS) will offer a living space for children of up to 12 years of street vendors who work at Carnival. On the days of technical rehearsals and parades in Sapucaí, mothers will be able to leave their children in the Child Development Space (Edi) Rachel de Queiroz, on Presidente Vargas Avenue, in the center, near the sambadrome, between 18h and 6am the next day.
50 vacancies will be offered per night, about twice the offered in 2024. The service will be from January 25, on the first night of technical rehearsals, and runs until March 8, the day of the champion parade. Children will have food, recreational activities and artistic and cultural activities.
In addition to serving those seeking the service, an active search will be done. According to the secretary, social workers and educators will circulate and identify needs, inviting parents.
Service expansion
The workers celebrate the achievements, but in the face of many hours of work still discovered, they want to expand this service. They ask them to be offered in more places, as the blocks are in different parts of the city, and also that this service is offered in pre-carnival and throughout the day.
They also want the service to be done in other major events in Rio de Janeiro, besides Carnival.
“We leave in the morning, at 5:30 am, 6 am, to buy drink, go to the street to take the first block that starts at 7am, 8am. Then we jump from one block to another. A block ends, the street vendor jumps to another block. So, usually we get home midnight and little, 1 am, ”says the collective coordinator they Providência, Carol Alves.
They are a collective of women informal workers who fight for the recognition and rights of women in work without a formal contract. Carol says that in 2023 they learned of initiatives in Salvadorwhich provide safe spaces so that the children of street vendors can stay while parents work at Carnival. Since then, they fight for something similar in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s very difficult and it’s very sad that you see a mother trying to live, trying to take food into the house, on a triple journey on the street and with the child, you know? The child gets stressed, the child gets the psychological state totally shaken too, because he has to stay on the street, making 40 degrees in the days, with his mother selling drink, ”he says.
In 2024, the service was offered for the first time, the result of a partnership of the 1st Court of Childhood, Youth and the Elderly of the Capital, the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice and the Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance.
This year, workers’ organizations came together, seeking space for a campaign they already had: day care campaign at Carnival, led by the collective them for their providence with the workers movement without right.
“The street vendors are essential at Carnival, they are essential in major events. Without a street vendor, the carnival does not walk. Without a street vendor, a party, a big event, it doesn’t walk either, because the street vendor is there selling the water, selling a soda, selling a beer. We are the waiters of the big parties, ”says
Work is rush
Taís Lopes knows the walking routine at Carnival closely, she has been working in this area for 8 years. Since the birth of her youngest daughter, Agatha, 3 years ago, she has the company of the baby.
“When I go to work, I always carry my daughter. I am walking, then I have to carry it to buy drink. I carry her with me so I can sell, ”he says.
“My job is rush, poor. She sleeps, then I wake up on time and say, ‘Let’s go, daughter’. I have no one to leave with. If I had a support network, I could go to work quietly, but I don’t have it. I together a business, a cookie, a water and go out. I leave in the morning, then depending on the direction we take, if you have a block, we are stretching how far it comes, ”he says.
Such is also the mother of Kayky, 15 years old. When the youngest daughter was born, her father left them and she became a solo mother and needs to take her daughter where she goes.
“But because she is a child, she gets tired, she’s only 3 years old. It’s tiring for her, there’s no place to take a shower, not to be able to stretch, lie down. She is walking with me, so she is tired, I push on the wagon, I pull, let’s go, ”he says. “I have to run after the system, because if I don’t run, we don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t dress.”
Have a place to make your daughter anima. “I’m very happy that we will be able to work quietly. Not worrying about malicious people, because unfortunately carnival has a lot of this to want to pass, pull the child, enjoy that the mother is distracted. ”
