Teens who are out to change the world ~ Series 6

Rene Silva set up his first newspaper at 11 and live-tweeted a police raid on his town. – Vimeo

While most Brazilian teenagers are interested in computer games, homework, football or baile funk, Rene Silva has dedicated himself to fighting negative stereotypes about his favela community.

He set up his first newspaper at the age of 11, live-tweeted a police raid on his neighborhood at 17 and has just completed his first book at the age of 19.

The shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro were long seen as violent no-go zones run by armed drug gangs. But Silva has used social media to show a more sympathetic, complex and hopeful side.


“The important thing about being young and doing what I do in the favelas is to create new points of reference,” he said.

“In the past, it was drug trafficking. Today, there is more recognition of the people who are trying to do good and change the reality of the place where they live.”

Conscious of the shortcoming of the mainstream media, one of his teachers asked him to set up a community newspaper in 2005.

At first, his family were doubtful about what he could achieve. His mother would scold him for getting home late from school because he had spent so long reporting and writing for Voz das Comunidades (Voice of the Community). But he became the focus of every media organization in the country five years later when he live-tweeted a huge military and police operation to “pacify” the Alemao favela where he lived.

Silva’s micro blog corrected mistakes made by TV reporters and raised warnings about a young boy who was caught in the crossfire between the police and gangsters. His followers jumped from a few hundred to tens of thousands and his newspaper – now largely online – secured sponsorship.

Still not 20, Silva published a book this August, A Voz Do Alemao, about the residents of his favela, which he hopes will further change perceptions of Rio’s shanty town communities and expose the problems they continue to face after pacification

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