Every Thursday, the Brazilian psychiatrist Flavio Falcone leaves his white coat in the closet: it is with a clown's red nose that he goes to meet the drug addicts of "Cracolandia", nickname given to a district of Sao Paulo taken over by crack users.
"Hello Cracolandia!" says the 43-year-old doctor, dressed in red and black overalls to match his hat, his face smeared in white and scarlet makeup.
He has been working in this area of the center of the largest megalopolis in Latin America for ten years, where drug addicts roam among waste and dilapidated buildings.
"The clown represents hope in the face of failure: we laugh at him because he stumbles, not because he succeeds. Those who live on the streets identify with him", insists the red-nosed psychiatrist .
The character of the clown makes it possible to "create deep and immediate bonds".
Which is impossible in a white coat, some fearing being hospitalized by force.
According to data from the Federal University of Sao Paulo from 2022, between 800 and 1,700 crack addicts roam this area, and 39% of them have lived there for more than ten years.
When Flavio Falcone arrives in the neighborhood, to the sound of funk coming from loudspeakers installed on a shopping cart, most crack addicts remain indifferent.
But some, curious, approach. The first to grab the microphone for a cat contest is Peterson P.P., the stage name of a 29-year-old man who dreams of becoming a funk singer.
"It's like going on stage. I've always asked God to give me an opportunity," says this young black man who has lived on the streets since childhood and has been living in the neighborhood for three years.
While he sings, an emaciated man lights a metal pipe to smoke a pebble of crack, a dose sold at 20 reais (about 3.60 euros).
The competition aims to "awaken the lifeblood of these people to motivate them to start treatment", explains the psychiatrist.
He is supported by volunteers and his project is financed by donations from companies, after having long benefited from the support of the public authorities.
Once he is confident, the patient can start a three-step program: "first, he is offered housing, then a job, and only after that, treatment".
Flavio Falcone claims to have freed dozens of people from addiction in this way.
Drug addicts are employed in cleaning companies, sewing workshops, or enter a municipal program of reintegration through work.
For Vanilson Santos Conceicao, 35, it's a "luxury" to be able to sleep under a roof, shower and cook.
"I suffered a lot on the street, I took a lot of drugs, but I dropped out three years ago," said this man from Bahia (north-east), who now distributes packed lunches to drug addicts.
But the spectacle of the clown-psychiatrist comes to an abrupt end with each raid by the police.
Associations dealing with drug addicts denounce police violence, while residents and traders complain of insecurity.
Local authorities have been addressing the problem for decades and the new Sao Paulo state government, in place since last month, recently launched an action plan with the town hall.
“Today, there are more initiatives from associations than from public authorities,” admits Vice-Governor Felicio Ramuth, in charge of the “Cracolandia” file, to AFP.
The plan includes the hiring of specialists and the setting up of discussion groups.
Some 500 surveillance cameras must also be installed and 1,000 places will soon be opened in care units.
02/16/2023 21:06:26 - Sao Paulo (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
