Daily Echo reporter Rory McKeown reports on the conditions female street vendors face in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the work Christian Aid is doing to support them

You’re an honest, law abiding citizen determined to do whatever it takes to provide a living for you and your family.

You wake up at the break of dawn each day, still exhausted from yesterday’s hard graft but committed to making what money you can – even if you have to work over the hours to keep a roof over your head.

Yet you face a series of problems on an often daily basis that makes your right to make a living a stressful and dangerous experience.

Intimidation, lack of support, and threats of violence.

These are a very real and exhausting prospect for the street vendors of Sao Paulo, who are predominantly women.

They endure intimidation from the police, who will seize their stalls without warning.

They face threats of violence from everyday members of the public, such as those who want street sellers out of their neighbourhoods.

And they receive little to no support from the government to keep their businesses going.

Thankfully global charity Christian Aid and its partner organisations are working hard to give thousands of female street vendors hope in Brazil.

I flew out to Brazil to look at the work the charity is carrying out to stamp out the problem ahead of Christian Aid Week – seven days of action and fundraising to raise awareness of the organisation’s tireless work across the world.

One forward-thinking organisation that seeks to give more rights and protection to female street vendors in the Brazilian city is the Gaspar Garcia Centre for Human Rights.

I met with Gaspar Garcia activists at their headquarters, who explained in great detail the lengths they are going to fight oppression facing women street vendors in an increasingly difficult political environment.

Amanda Paulista, a legal advisor, said one of the main objectives for the Gaspar Garcia centre is to create an association made up entirely of women street vendors if they need advocacy or advice in times of need.

She said: “Women street vendors suffer violence from the police and violence from clients. These are complex issues they have to deal with.”

Amanda explained how the mayor of Sao Paulo started to revoke street vendor licenses from thousands of people over a three year period between 2009 and 2012 in the run up to the World Cup in Brazil.

She explained how the authorities wanted to make the streets look neater and cleaner for tourists during the month-long competition – without sparing a thought for the lives it would affect in the country.

“Most of these women [who Gaspar Garcia work with] don’t have a licence to work in the street”, she explained.

“Now we have a situation where people need to work but they don’t have a licence. The police will come along and take all their stuff and give it away.

“The national organisation for street vendors say this is happening on all streets of Brazil.

“What is shocking in society is when people see the violence of police towards women that are sometimes with children. Many women street vendors are over 35 years old and are with children.

“Some were abused by their husbands and ended up on the streets trying to make a living.”

Sao Paulo is a truly breathtaking city, one of the most populated in the world, and during my time there I encountered all walks of life.

I was guided to meet Edie Dos Santos, pictured below, a street vendor selling clothes in a street full of shops that wouldn’t look out of place in any city in the UK.

She was set up outside a large stall that could be the equivalent of a Tesco Home Plus. If you wanted something, they would have it.

But it didn’t deter the 66-year-old, who was the oldest vendor I interviewed.

She has been selling goods on the streets of Sao Paulo for the past 40 years, and she shows no signs of slowing down despite her age.

“It’s a bit exhausting because I am old”, she said with a glint in her eye.

“I am retired but the money I make is more than my pension.

“I will keep working until my last day.”

It’s a long and arduous day for the mother-of-six, who has to put up and pack away the stall by herself – and face constant harassment from local government supervisors who are scrutinising her every move.

In my short time with her, one local government official pulled up next to her stall and brazenly said “I’m the one who can get rid of you”, before ordering us not to take photos.

Edie has to go through a painstaking legal process of standing before a judge to plead for a licence, but she is now more confident thanks to the legal help from Gaspar Garcia centre.

She said: “If it was not for Gaspar Garcia we would not be working here today.

“In Brazil the law doesn’t benefit the poor. In Brazil, the elderly are not respected much.”

Gaspa Garcia has helped facilitate monthly workshops for women street vendors in the hope of setting up a support network.

Kelly Makauskas, pictured below, has been a street vendor since 1991 and is an integral figure for women in the trade.

She is someone they can look to for advice and support through knowledge she has gained from Gaspar Garcia’s programme.

The 32-year-old mother of two paints a dark picture of the daily strife facing vendors.

“I have a very bad relationship with the police”, Kelly said.

“If you need security or any support they don’t give it to you. We don’t have a public bathroom.

“To go to the bathroom I have got to leave my stall alone. But the police say I cannot leave.

“I once told this to a police woman but she didn’t care. You can be fined if you leave your stall.

“There is nobody else but me that can work this stall. I have to close the van early or stay here – it’s horrible as I work from 9am until 6.30pm.”

She tells me of a day of violence that unfolded on the streets of Sao Paulo after the government tried to force vendors out of the cities in 1999.

Kelly, who is called ‘the mother’ by other fellow vendors, said: “There was a mayor that wanted to end street sellers.

The police came with tear gas and wanted to separate everybody out.

“I was choking and they used rubber bullets against us. I was in shock. A lot of people got hurt that day.

“Everyone on the streets should be united and come together to ask for their rights.”

Vania Almeida, 58, works in the Santa Cecilia area of the city.

The area where she works is a clear example of an evident class divide in Sao Paulo. It is close to a dangerous neighbourhood where the use of crack cocaine is rife, but just opposite is one of the richest parts of the city.

Vania’s stall compromised of a large blanket on a pavement adorned with hats, blouses, jewellery, and an assortment of children’s Peppa Pig merchandise scattered over it.

Not surprisingly, the mother-of-one had felt the force of the law and described the daily stress she faces from the prospect of police seizing goods.

She starts at 5am and finishes at 3pm – but tells me she spends all of this time looking over her shoulder.

“The other week the police took away my merchandise. They didn’t return it”, she said.

“If you want it back, they ask you for three times more than I paid originally.

“There is no support from the state.

We only have a bit of money but the government want to take it away.”