Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNN) -- Bare brick houses stacked one on top of another cling to the hills of Rio de Janeiro.

Raw sewage trickles down the winding paths of these shanty towns, known as favelas, and in many, shootouts between drug dealing gangs and police are a daily ritual.

The shanty towns are resented and feared by the rest of the city.

But residents in the Santa Marta slum have transformed their community into a living, breathing canvas.

With the help of two Dutch artists and a pioneering paint firm, the main square is now a kaleidoscope of color.

"It gives the community life!" said Edimar Marcelinho Franco, who helped paint the 34 buildings and walked away with a professional painting title.

"People who come to the favela today say, 'Wow, how pretty.' It doesn't have that image of an ugly favela," he said.

The project is the brainchild of Dutch artists Dre Urhahn and Jeroen Koolhaas, who visited Rio's favelas for the first time in 2005 to shoot hip hop videos.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/17/brazil.beautiful.favela/index.html

Interesting and attractive. I was hoping it would be reported that this was a first step to changing things for the better but the story in the link says, "crime is not abated", a sorryful statement and comment.

Best regards,

RA1

Pretty amazing. A great start. The real challenge will be to maintain it and transform the community sprit into a more positive channel. Of course jobs and more coummunity investment would help too.