In 1999, the 'Portinari in the hills of Rio de Janeiro' project was implemented in three communities in Rio de Janeiro - Dona Marta, São Carlos, and dos Macacos. This initiative was the result of a collaboration with the Committee for the Democratization of Information Technology (CDI), conceived and directed by Rodrigo Baggio, who is responsible for setting up computer schools in various slums in the city.
An innovative aspect of this module was the training of monitors directly in the communities themselves. It was exciting to imagine that the work of this artist, who has portrayed so much about the slum and its inhabitants, was literally going up the slum for the first time, providing access to technology and knowledge for the local communities.
