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Testimonies from residents show how community organization drove urban improvement and access to the right to the city.

Chamanculo: Paradise - Building the Right to the City, depicts the urban transformation process in Chamanculo C, in Maputo, Mozambique. The film showcases the changes experienced by this community, historically affected by floods and lack of infrastructure, toward an environment with more accessible streets and better living conditions.

It will premiere on March 19 at 7:30 PM at Cines Girona in Barcelona, Spain. The screening will be free and open to the public, marking the start of a tour through other cities and festivals.

The project marks ten years of work by Arquitectura Sin Fronteras in the neighborhood. Through testimonies from residents themselves, with special prominence given to women, it recalls past difficulties such as floods and lack of infrastructure, and shows how community organization processes have driven territorial transformation.

It also proposes a reflection on the right to the city, understood as access to basic services, infrastructure, and decent housing. This process highlights advances in access to DUAT (land use and benefit rights), as well as the generation of regulations approved by the local government, considered a milestone in the improvement of informal neighborhoods across the African continent.

The production is supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, Spanish Cooperation, and the Barcelona City Council. Experiences like this initiative align with projects promoted by SELAVIP, which supports housing, land tenure regularization, and habitat improvement in communities across various countries.

SEE TRAILER

Hogar de Cristo Ecuador will hold the "Of Wood and Cane" event on Wednesday, January 28, at 7:30 p.m. This event is dedicated to raising awareness about access to decent housing in communities along the Ecuadorian coast. It will take place in the Zaruma Room of the Sánchez Aguilar Theater in Samborondón and will feature Sergio Said, executive director of SELAVIP Chile.

In these communities, many families build their homes with traditional materials like wood and cane. Despite adverse conditions, they have developed strong support networks, and their resilience is reflected in every collective project.

Said will participate as an exhibitor, sharing SELAVIP's experience in financing and collaborations that facilitate access to decent housing for low-income families.

The event will bring together representatives from institutions, social organizations, and individuals interested in learning about initiatives that promote the right to housing. In addition to the discussion, an audiovisual presentation will be shown featuring testimonials from families and demonstrating the power of community support in the process of building dignified homes.

For SELAVIP, this space represents an opportunity for the exchange of experiences and the strengthening of collaborative networks, which contribute to integral human development in contexts of urban poverty.

Josse van der Rest SJ, founder of SELAVIP, passed away on 24 July 2020 in the Jesuit community of Santiago de Chile and when the world had already decreed a general confinement due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

From a personal point of view, Josse was known as the Father of the simple and coarse words, as he used to use the slang taught to him by street children in Chile. However, Josse was much more than that.

He was a curious man - intellectually speaking -, sensitive and very cross-cutting in his relationships, as he could relate to royalty as well as to the homeless man in the street.

Josse left no one indifferent and always had a word for the people he met.

Josse, after arriving in Chile in 1958, lived in three slums in Santiago before becoming involved in the Hogar de Cristo Fundación Vivienda Factory. From there, in his tireless struggle on behalf of the poorest, he became known as the Father of the Mediaguas, since this type of housing was created by him based on the needs of families to have a decent roof over their heads.

Josse, together with several people including Father Pichi sj, decided to create SELAVIP in 1971 and from there he started to support housing projects in South America, then came to Asia, with the help of Father Jorge Anzorena sj, and finally, it was at the end of the 90's when SELAVIP decided to go to Africa.

We would like to thank Josse for his contribution to improving the lives of the poorest families, as well as his fight against urban speculation.

Today, SELAVIP continues to support housing, water systems, sanitation, toilets and land regularisation, with the main focus being that people live in a clean and dignified environment.

FUNDASAL invites you to pay tribute to the lives and legacy of two people whose integrity, vision, and dedication have profoundly influenced our journey: Edín Martínez, former director of our institution, and Father Josse van der Rest, founder of SELAVIP.

Father Josse's faith became a home, a community, and hope.

Thursday, July 24
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
FUNDASAL Auditorium

A space to honor their memories, embrace their legacy, and renew our commitment.

Dear friends of SELAVIP

Today we received the sad news from Tokyo: the Jesuit priest and architect Jorge Anzorena has passed away at the age of 94, on Feb 22 at the Hospital in Tokyo due to congestive heart failure.
The funeral mass will be held on February 26 at 9:30 a.m. at Ignatius Church in Yotsuya (Tokyo) and will be recorded on Youtube.

In a special way we want to pay tribute to this man who in the 70's was one of the first collaborators of SELAVIP and who allowed us to expand the borders of SELAVIP to the Asian continent, where he lived for more than 60 years with all the passion of a man who seeks truth, justice and an eternal family where he can develop his mission of love.

We also want to highlight his constant struggle to defend a decent habitat for the poorest and his work to disseminate hundreds of initiatives that were carried out around the world for that purpose, through the SELAVIP Newsletter which has been existing for more than 30 years. It illustrated the housing projects, water systems, sanitation projects, toilets, latrines, urban interventions of different scale carried out by hundreds of non-profit organizations in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We invite you to jointly build on the achievements of father Anzorena to honour his memory and the noble cause he served so well.

From left to right: Josse van der Rest sj, Jorge Anzorena sj, José María "Pichi" Meisegeier sjPichi” Meisegeier sj

Due to the high demand and interest in participating in our calls to apply for projects to finance emergency housing, water systems, sanitation and land regularization, we want to inform all non-profit ORGANIZATIONS that ARE NOT REGISTERED in our System, that registrations will be open only until February 28, 2026 (at midnight Chilean time). Any NGO registration that is carried out after that date will not be able to participate in the new call to submit projects. The process of Review and Activation of Organizations will be resumed from July 1, 2026.

This announcement is only for Organizations not registered in our system, those that are already activated should not consider this announcement..

À toutes les nouvelles organisations qui souhaitent s’inscrire dans le système de selavip

En raison de la forte demande et de l’intérêt de participer à nos appels à candidatures pour des projets de financement de logements d’urgence, de systèmes d’eau, d’assainissement et de régularisation de terrains, nous désirons informer toutes les ORGANISATIONS à but non lucratif qui NE SONT PAS ENREGISTRÉES dans notre système que les inscriptions ne seront ouvertes que jusqu’au 28 février 2026 (à minuit heure chilienne). Tout enregistrement d’ONG effectué après cette date aura pour conséquence que l’ONG ne pourra pas participer au nouvel appel à projets. Le processus d’examen et d’activation des organisations reprendra le premier juillet 2026.

Cette annonce est uniquement destinée aux organisations non enregistrées dans notre système, celles qui sont déjà activées ne doivent pas tenir compte de cette annonce.