Not to say that favelas in Rio de Janeiro were dying – in today’s world, if anything, they are probably teeming with life more that ever. Favelas are rough neighborhoods, its inhabitants driven to extremes (like crime) by poverty. Still, as in all places called home by many, there are children, mothers, people looking for an honest break and just trying to live through the day. If we could imagine anything, it’d be that it’s not easy for them, walking through life obstructed by society and prejudice, to say the least. And the dark or dirty gray surroundings of home, to which they come to every night, could do nothing but help dwindle away the will for another tomorrow’s effort.

In 2006, two Dutch artists, Jeroen Koolhas and Dre Urhahn, started a community-driven project to breathe new life in Rio’s most notorious slum Vila Cruzeiro. Success they had with the community there inspired Haas & Hahn, as they call themselves, to transform facades of 34 houses in another favela, Santa Marta (7000 square meters of hillside slum), into a vivid, living and breathing environment, meant to inspire everyone on a bad day and make good days even better.

The artistic and philanthropic efforts of Haas & Hahn, for the Favela Painting continue to day, but would not be possible if they were left on their own. To keep them going, please visit their official website.