Campaign seeks to give visibility to the 32 thousand homeless people in the city of São Paulo
Did you know that within the city of São Paulo there is another municipality? With a population of almost 32 thousand inhabitants, the so-called “Land of the Invisibles” is the result of an initiative developed by NGO SP Invisívelin partnership with the agency iD\TBWAwhich seeks to give visibility to the reality experienced by the homeless population in the capital of São Paulo.
With the mission of raising awareness and sensitizing society about the existence of this other city, the NGO gathered official data on population, housing, demography, economic activities, among other information, and made a parallel with a real city. The main action of the campaign will be to compile the demands collected from the residents of this Land and format them into an action plan, which will be delivered to the main pre-candidates for mayor of São Paulo this year. Furthermore, urban interventions with graffiti on the streets will demarcate and make apparent the territory occupied by homeless people. And the dimensioning of the space occupied by the inhabitants of this municipality, previously unnoticed, will include pins on the map of São Paulo, made in Google Street View.
If it were real, the Land of the Invisibles would occupy 189th place in São Paulo’s population ranking, but it would appear in 646th, or last, position in the state’s HDI index. At a national level, the city would have a population greater than 89% of Brazilian municipalities. It is worth mentioning that the capital of São Paulo accounts for 25% of the entire homeless population in the country.
According to André Soler, founder and CEO of SP Invisível, an NGO that celebrates ten years of history in 2024, the idea is that these actions will help open people’s eyes and transform the reality of the Land of the Invisibles and its residents.
“We are talking about a situation that is extremely evident in numbers, but often not in the general perception of society. More than making this population visible, we want homeless citizens to have their stories and aspirations heard,” he says.
Countless stories were heard by the NGO during the creation of the Land of the Invisibles. One of them is from Anderson da Silva, 41 years old, who lives in Praça Marechal Deodoro, in the Santa Cecília region. For eight months on the streets, he argues how much society does not see that they are also human beings like everyone else.
“Before this situation I worked in the market, I was a mechanic and an upholsterer, and I did countless worthy jobs. However, we are invisible to society, especially in my case, which is unlikely to accept or trust an ex-convict,” he argues.
According to Sthefan Ko, executive director of Creation at ID\TBWA, the entire campaign schedule was planned with the purpose of generating the necessary repercussion to highlight the importance of the agenda.
“Our objective was to create a project that not only raises awareness, but also inspires concrete actions in society and significant changes in the attention given to this invisible side in the heart of one of the main cities in the world”, he assesses.
Through official site From the Land of the Invisibles it is possible to learn more about the city and contribute donations to the residents.
*Cover photo: Disclosure/NGO SP Invisível and ID\TBWA
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