São Paulo – Most of them come from countries whose cultures differ greatly from the Brazilian one, where men/women relationships are governed by a different set of rules and customs. Therefore, the organization Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde (Feminist Collective Sexuality and Health) will host a roundtable conversation for male refugees in the next three Saturdays, December 5th, 2nd and 19th at its headquarters in São Paulo’s Pinheiros neighborhood. Registration is open (view contact information below).
Organized by the collective alongside Caritas São Paulo and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the meeting intends to be a brainstorm on what being a male refugee in São Paulo is like. The Collective is a non-governmental organization active in human rights, sexuality and healthcare. Since 2009, it has maintained Grupo Reflexivo de Homens (Men’s Reflection Group), which works with men convicted under Lei Maria da Penha, a law against physical or psychological abuse against women.
The NGO’s background led the UNHCR to request that roundtable talks with refugees be held, says the Group’s coordinator Leandro Feitosa Andrade. “Ninety percent of refugees have a different cultural background than Brazilians,” says Andrade. The event was held in November 2014 and during Carnival this year; the latter focused on the actual celebrations. “Our experience with them was great,” he says.
The groups are small, of 15 people at most, so that everyone gets to discuss their experiences. The refugees go over how men and women relate in their countries and over what they have found in Brazil. Andrade explains that one of the things they struggle with is accepting the freedom of women, the fact that women play an equal role to their own in Brazil. Some will turn down jobs where their boss will be female, the coordinator says. In many countries, women must submit to men as a result of religion.
Most of the men who joined the discussion last year were single. Some married men travelled to Brazil on their own before bringing their families, in case the adaptation process goes well. Participants end up discussing other aspects, such as work, their struggle trying to fulfill what they deem as their role as money-making males while also being refugees. Andrade tells that the refugees coming to Brazil are skilled workers. They’re architects, lawyers, journalists who find themselves forced to take manual jobs.
The group chat is divided in four modules. In the first one, called “Coisas de lá, coisas daqui” (Things from there, things from here), they are invited to tell what they bring from their culture regarding man/women relations and what they face in Brazil, how they see and understand the Brazilian culture. In the second module, the theme is what it means to be a refugee man, and in the third, called “I like women”, the chat focus on the references they have regarding women, what they find in Brazil and how it goes from now on. The fourth module covers women’s and men’s rights in Brazil, the history of women’s achievements and other topics along similar lines.
Since this month’s group will have only three meetings, the second and third topics will be covered in one of the Saturdays. Andrade says that when the initiative was organized last year, the refugees were pleased to have participated. One anthropologist, Isabela Venturoza, and three psychologists, Andrade, Tales Furtado and Paula Prates, are the ones leading the meetings. There is also an English and French translator if needed since the chat happens in Portuguese. The participants receive meal and transportation vouchers.
A conversation between male refugees
Date: December 5th, 12th and 19th – Saturdays
Time: from 2 PM to 5 PM
Place: Rua Bartolomeu Zunega, 44 – Pinheiros (próximo ao Metrô Faria Lima).
Registration and information:
cfssaude@uol.com.br
(11) 3812-8681
(11) 99287-7272
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
