Anderson Sa and José Junior are the leaders of the AfroReggae Cultural Group in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, two men who could have used their music to leave the favela where they grew up, but instead stayed to help other young people survive.

About a quarter of Rio\'s four million residents live in one or another of hundreds of favelas, areas that are rundown and unsanitary, that rarely have electricity, running water, or effective sewage systems. People who live in favelas are invariably poor, and surrounded by daily crime and violence; most of them are black. The favelas are typically run by gangs. Between 1980 and 2000, almost 50,000 people were shot dead in the favelas.

\"People here,\" says Junior, \"don\'t know anything else apart from the sound of gunshots and violence.\"

This is the world that both Sa and Junior are working to change. In 1992, Junior began by organizing a daylong music and dancing event that featured Afro Reggae music. It was a tremendous success, and he followed up by teaching martial arts and drama, publishing a monthly newsletter that focused on Afro-Brazilian culture—and by forming a band. Add it all together and he had started the AfroReggae Cultural Group.

The following year, in an act of revenge against drug lords who had ordered the execution of four police officers, local police swarmed into the favela and killed 21 innocent people, one of whom was the brother of Anderson Sa. Sa, dispirited but wanting to do something positive, joined forces with Junior, with a goal of showing young people in the favelas that there was more to life than cowering before drug gangs, dodging cops, and scrounging for food. There was music, dance, and art. There was learning skills that would get them jobs. And there was making peace with each other.

Sa and Junior raised money from the newsletter and the band, acquired grants, and took their services to other parts of Brazil, opening community centers, organizing conferences, facilitating workshops on domestic violence and personal hygiene, speaking at schools and universities, and spawning other community groups.

\"We are admired by the drug dealers because they don\'t want the kids to do what they do,\" said Sa. But that admiration isn\'t shared by all the power players in the favelas. There have been death threats, arson, and shots fired into the group\'s headquarters.

The newsletter—Afro Reggae—eventually gained a circulation of 12,000, distributed across eight Brazilian states and in nine other countries. The classes expanded to include percussion, violins, dance, comic strips, soccer, recycling, and information technology. The band—\"AfroReggae\"—played funk, hip hop, rock, and samba. In 2001, Sa and Junior signed a contract with Universal, released an album, and took the band around the world, playing to enthusiastic audiences, including one at New York\'s Carnegie Hall. In 2006, they told their story in a documentary, Favela Rising.

But this isn\'t really about newsletters or music or fame; it\'s about the favelas. It\'s about the people in the favelas that Sa and Junior have helped over the years—despite the continual risks from street violence and planned attacks.

\"We are more than a music group with attitude,\" says Sa. \"There are 60 projects and over 2,000 people directly involved; indirectly, there\'s more. We are changing a lot of people. Music is the first thing, but we also have theater, education . . . We\'re not a group that stays on the stage, performing just to perform. If we did that, we wouldn\'t feel happy about our job.\"
And what is their job? \"It\'s about bringing kids into our group and taking them out of the favela,\" says Sa. \"The favela is a closed world. When you take them out of here, they discover new worlds.\"

Junior concurs: \"We\'re a group of destroyed people infected by idealism.\"

You can keep up with their work at www.afroreggae.org (if you speak Portuguese).