Rio favela kids get free movie after pandemic hardships

By MARIO LOBÃO
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A project to give children in poor neighborhoods a shot at going to the movies has resumed in Rio de Janeiro now that the pace of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 has ebbed. Some 200 children in the Vila Cruzeiro favela lined up to catch a free movie screening this week. Some had never stepped foot in a cinema before. The price of admission, transport and snacks prohibitive for many even before the pandemic battered their parents jobs and inflation ate away at household budgets. The program is run by a nonprofit called Voice of the Community.