Every Thursday, Brazilian psychiatrist Flavio Falcone trades his white lab coat for a red clown nose and heads to a decidedly unfunny place: A squalid Sao Paulo neighborhood known as “Crackland.”
Wearing a baggy red-and-black outfit with a floppy hat and make-up to match, the 43-year-old doctor danced a goofy routine through the sordid streets of the downtown neighborhood, which is known as Brazil’s biggest open-air narcotics market.
“Good morning, Crackland,” he shouted to the strung-out addicts meandering through the trash and decaying buildings that line the district’s streets, where authorities have tried in vain for years to restore law and order.
Photo: AFP
“Crackland is where people who have failed in the capitalist system seek refuge,” Falcone said. “And clowns represent hope in the face of failure: We laugh when they stumble, and people here can relate to that.”
Falcone’s goal is to build a relationship of trust with addicts, many of whom fear being forced into treatment facilities by the authorities.
It is a first step in helping them get off the street, he said.
There are about 800 to 1,700 addicts in Crackland, 39 percent of whom have lived in or frequented the neighborhood for more than a decade, according to a study by the Federal University of Sao Paulo published last year.
The number was previously as high as 4,000, before a series of police operations dispersed the addict population.
However, the operations also had the side effect of dispersing Crackland, which went from a clearly delimited district to a hazier area covering much of the city center in the sprawling economic capital of 12 million people.
Falcone arrives in the neighborhood jamming to the beats of Brazilian funk music pouring from a sound system wheeled in by his volunteer assistants.
At first, most of the addicts ignore him.
However, then a few curious onlookers gather and Falcone talks them into participating in a singing contest.
The first to take the mic is Peterson P.P. — his stage name — a 29-year-old homeless man who has been living in Crackland for three years.
He said his dream is to become a funk singer.
“It’s almost like being on stage,” he said.
As he sang, another man lit a metal pipe and smoked a crack rock, for an intense, but fleeting high that costs about 20 reals (US$3.85).
The idea of the singing contest, Falcone said, is to “reawaken a life force” in participants, to start steering them toward a treatment program.
It is a three-step process, he said.
“First, we help them get housing. After that, jobs” — often as cleaners, garment workers or in municipal work-placement programs, he said.
“Then and only then, we help them get treatment for their addictions,” he added.
The project, which he started about 10 years ago, has helped dozens of people overcome addiction, Falcone said.
He started the project with government funding, but now relies on corporate donations to keep it going.
One beneficiary, Vanilson Santos Conceicao, said the program helped him put a roof over his head and begin rebuilding his life.
“I suffered a lot on the street. I took a lot of drugs, but I’ve been clean for three years now,” said Conceicao, 35, who helps prepare free meals for addicts.
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