Tag Archives: Ronny

EcoHouse Brazil Beating the living daylights out of poverty by Sam Street

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It is not often that you can visit a deprived community in Brazil and envy children growing up there.  However, that is exactly how I felt after witnessing EcoHouse Group’s latest social project in action.

This project is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school opened in partnership with UFC fighter Ronny Markes.  Anybody who has been to Brazil before will have noticed that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is second only to football in popularity here, so it was hardly surprising that the dojo in the neighbourhood of Vila de Ponta Negra was packed with about 30 local children.

Strangely enough, I live on the other side of Ponta Negra, just a 15 minute walk away from this neighbourhood and I run through it at least two mornings a week.  In Brazil it is extraordinarily common, and a damning indictment of the country’s social divide, for an upper/middle class community and a working class community to live side by side with zero communication, barely even acknowledging the other’s existence, just as is the case in Ponta Negra.  In fact, until I started going for runs in the morning, I believed that my nearest supermarket was a 20 minute bus ride away because no local person wanted to do their city a disservice by telling me it was actually in Vila de Ponta Negra.

Contrary to how wealthy Brazilians may describe it,  to me, Vila de Ponta Negra looked more modest than truly run down.  Although houses are only about the size of most garages in the UK, there are no shacks and the roads are relatively modern with only a few stray dogs around to give me second thoughts about running through there, and you soon get used to them.  To put it simply, Vila de Ponta Negra is what the majority of most Brazilian cities looks like and my side of Ponta Negra is probably how the government would prefer cities to look.

Of course, this is where EcoHouse comes into the picture with developments under the government’s Minha Casa, Minha Vida programme.  Through Minha Casa, Minha Vida, people like those in Vila de Ponta Negra will be able to own newly constructed larger and higher quality houses.  In my opinion the most important thing about EcoHouse’s developments, in particular, is the security, which the company will provide through gated communities, 24 hour guard towers and a police station on site.

It was simply unbelievable to hear Ronny Markes tell Gabriela, EcoHouse Brasil’s Head of Operations, and me that a number of kids attending these classes had previously been drug dealers or had seen their parents murdered and some of the girls had been raped.  Can you imagine all this happening within walking distance of your house and not apparently affecting your life or the life of anybody you know in any way whatsoever?  This is the fundamental difference between Brazil and a European country and the government knows it all too well.

At the moment you may be considering my opening statement, and wondering how on Earth I can say I have anything to envy.

Well you haven’t seen the class in action!  After Ronny introduced all the kids to Gabriela and explained to them how she had made this project possible, the lesson began in earnest and brought to my mind a new company slogan:

‘EcoHouse doesn’t just fight poverty, it beats the living daylights out of it!’

When I was in junior school, I was perfectly happy with my weekly karate class.  However, if I had had the option of something so competitive, so physical, so politically incorrect, so likely to give most mothers nightmares, and yet all under the guidance of one of the best fighters in the business, then karate would have paled into insignificance.

And here in Brazil, it wasn’t just the boys who were fired up about the class.  A little girl there had absolutely no hesitation in asking to fight the star pupil, who was a boy twice her size.

Check out this video to see what the kids get up to during the class (Ronny is the one standing over the kids on the left of the room giving instructions):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSgt1xDoNU

Quite simply, if the government back in the UK is serious about restoring competitive sport to junior schools and also offering kids in deprived areas a sense of belonging outside of drugs and gangs, then I can think of no better way to do it than through Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

After this first bout, some of the other kids in the class got the chance to test their skills and this time it was left to the more experienced kids to ensure that the fights remained safe and the correct techniques were used.  Clearly this was a great way of developing them as people, rather than just jiu-jitsu fighters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_sdxmOJ5bQ

At the end of the class I got to have a quick chat with Ronny about his aims for the class and where EcoHouse fits in.

He told me:  “EcoHouse Group has invested a lot in these kids and is fundamental to this project.  For example, without them we wouldn’t have a place to train or any kimonos for the children to wear.  With EcoHouse’s help, I really believe we can produce the champions of the future, starting with December’s regional championships in Joao Pessoa and then hopefully the national championships in Sao Paulo next year.”

After shaking Ronny’s vice-like hand and leaving the dojo, I asked Gabriela if I could go to the adult class and she simply laughed without saying anything.  I don’t think she realised how serious I was!

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