I recently led a study trip to Brazil for students in my Masters program, and as part of the trip we visited the NGO Afroreggae. Their largest cultural center is located in a favela called Vigário Geral, which used to be called the Brazilian Bosnia because of its violence levels.
Afroreggae has cultural, artistic and educational programs for the community, primarily youth, to keep them away from drugs and violence and provide them with better opportunities to improve their lives. This is the entrance to the Waly Salomão Cultural center:
This is the are right outside the center, where our speaker told us they used to practice in the sun or rain, and sometimes near gunfire between the police and criminals.
View of Vigário Geral from the top floor of the cultural center. The area around the center is especially nice-looking and colorful. They are very used to receiving visitors, especially foreigners, so if you travel to Rio you can try to arrange a visit to one of their centers.
Check out Afroreggae's website (in Portuguese) here: http://www.afroreggae.org/
A great film was made about the organization, called Favela Rising: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela_Rising
Watch the trailer here: http://www.favelarising.com/
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