Every week, Cristina Ávila, 45, picks up her phone in the neighborhood of Anil, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and dials phone numbers that she’d never called before. Meanwhile, every week in Cidade de Deus, a neighborhood in the northern region of the city, the phone of Rosângela Oliveira – or Aunt Rô –, 62, receives a call from someone whose voice she does not recognize.
Just over a month ago, people who have never ever exchanged words before now come together through stories and poetry that are shared over the phone, forming connections that started in Rio de Janeiro and that today extend to the African continent – with Brazilians that reside in Kenya receiving calls.
This is how the Stories by Phone project, promoted by the Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of Rio de Janeiro, is proposing that people feel less alone in the midst of social isolation, caused by the new coronavirus pandemic.
