Viva Rio is a non-governmental organization, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. Its main goal is to promote a culture of peace and social development through field work, research and formulation of public policies.

The NGO was founded in December 1993 by representatives from different sectors of civil society. It was a response to the growing violence in Rio de Janeiro. Viva Rio has developed and strengthened a wide range of successful activities and strategies.

Solutions created by Viva Rio through research, development and field tests are initially deployed on a smaller scale. Once positive results are achieved these efforts are expanded and can become public policies to be reproduced by the State, the market and other NGOs.

Viva Rio was created in a reaction to local issues and it remains locally committed. However, due to the multiple nature of security matters, Viva Rio has become more international, therefore the solutions have to be thought of on both local and global perspectives.

Viva Rio has therefore identified the following scenario in reference to urban violence:

-         Risk  groups: youngsters in low income neighborhoods make up the group with higher exposure to armed violence.

-         Vector: firearms are the main vector of the violence epidemic. Firearms render conflicts more violent and lethal crimes become trivial; firearms are a symbol of the lack of security.

-         Critical areas: shantytowns (favelas, in Portuguese) and poor suburbs are critical areas. Social work has to be developed in sync with processes of urban rehabilitation.

There are no simple answers as to why poverty and social exclusion are associated to armed violence. However, when violence breaks out, these three factors feedback into one another creating a vicious circle. It is therefore necessary to integrate safety, social inclusion and development to interrupt this cycle.

Based on these principles, Viva Rio works on three different levels – Community Actions, International Human Safety and Communication.

- Viva Rio Advisory Board

- Executive Director

- Social Statute