Homeless Women in Rio de Janeiro Favela Pick Through Trash for Doll Parts to Recycle and Sell

Karen and Cristina are among the many thousands who live in Brazil’s favelas.

Favelas are impoverished urban districts that about 6% of Brazil’s massive population is estimated to call home, though many of the people there are homeless.

Many of its residents have to rely on unusual sources of income to pay for the most basic things.

Karen and Cristina pick through garbage in Rio de Janeiro to find old, discarded dolls.

Then they go to work on what they’ve salvaged by cleaning, transplanting, re-outfitting, remaking and recycling to find re-use in refuse.

Sometimes that means burning away the parts they don’t need.

They’ll recycle those doll parts into toys that they can sell to people in the neighborhood. If they’re lucky, they might get $5 a day for their efforts.

Their resourcefulness won’t lift them out of extreme poverty, but it may help them eat another day.

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