Wanderson da Silva Skrock - An Amazing Story of Trnsformation

Wanderson da Silva Skrock, Supervisor of CDI Francisco

              “ I became more and more powerful in my community
               because of my role as a drug dealer in the gang.”

 My first encounter with CDI was while I was serving time in a juvenile detention center. I come from a single mother household with 5 children;I am the only boy. We moved to Rio from the south of Brazil to Rio in search of employment. We moved into a favela called the German Complex, a community that was dominated by the drug trade. As a young impressionable boy I was very influenced by the drug dealers and gangs. I saw that being part of a gang gave people visibility, power and money. I started using drugs and getting to know the dealers. I started out doing small favors for them but my role grew larger and larger. I was selling drugs by the time I was 14.

 It was very hard for my mother to have her only son setting a bad example for the rest of her children and that bothered me, but I became more and more powerful in my community because of my role in the gang as a drug dealer so I got consumed by it. My life was about selling drugs, running from the police and shootouts with the police and rival gangs.

         “I was responsible for cutting, mixing, 
          selling, tracking and accounting for all the drugs 
          that came into the region”

Then one day I got caught and was sent to prison. I never imagined I would get caught. The feeing I had of losing my freedom was overwhelming. Although the prison was for minors the conditions were horrible, it was basically ruled by the kids. I had received the maximum sentence of 6 months. When I got out of prison I returned to trafficking and I became very powerful. I had gained the trust of my fellow gang members because I didn’t “rat” on them when I was captured so when I got out I got promoted. Soon I became one of the most powerful members of the gang, somewhere between the COO and CFO. I was responsible for cutting, mixing, selling, tracking and accounting for all the drugs that came into the region. I was dealing one and half million Reais per month, 250 thousand per week.

Then I got caught again and sent back to prison. After serving most of my time I was sent to a halfway house that had a CDI school inside. During this time, the three most powerful leaders of my gang were killed and I did not know who to trust or who would emerge as the new leaders of the gang so I decided it was a good time to lay low in the halfway house. While in the halfway house, Valdinei, a CDI educator, started talking with me about getting involved with CDI. In the beginning I did not understand how CDI could make a difference in my life. Valdinei knew how to talk to prisoners; he knew what we had been through, so he knew how to relate to us. He also had the vision and insight to see us as kids rather than just drug dealers. He said to me, “Give me a month, just try CDI for one month and then see how you feel about it”. There was nothing else to fill my time so I decided to give the program a chance.

When I first saw the computers I realized they were expensive pieces of equipment that could be sold for money. However, as I became educated on the internet, I learned about shopping malls, beaches and the city of Rio that were right outside my community. I had never seen anything outside of the favela where I lived. I never even understood the outside world was there - and they were so close. When I was a powerful member of the gang, I had power, money, girls and status, but I did not have freedom. I could not move beyond my community for fear of getting caught and because I had no knowledge of what was outside my favela.  The CDI instructor saw how fascinated I was with the internet and took interest in me  - he started to work with me every day. I was learning a lot.

         “… I became a CDI educator in the same 
         halfway house where I had been a prisoner!”

My family saw me applying myself, studying and learning and I began to develop a much better relationship with my family. It was one of the first times I saw my mother smile. The CDI educator saw that I was a quick learner and that I was very interested in technology. He would call on me to help the other prisoners. Then one day he came to me and informed me that there was training for CDI educators and invited me to come. I thought, no I can’t do that. It is one thing to help out, but to become an educator, I thought – “What would my friends think of me?”  He said “Do you want to go back to the streets where the chances are you will be dead by the time you are 20 years old or do you want to use your potential to help improve your life and help other people?”  So I took the course and when I finished there was a vacancy for a teacher and I became a CDI educator in the same halfway house where I had been a prisoner. That was three and a half years ago; I was 18 years old. When I was released from prison I went back to my community and told my gang members I did not want to return to that life, I wanted to teach. The leader of the gang gave me permission to leave the gang because I had not revealed the names the other gang members when I was arrested and I did not owe them anything.

           “Eventually, the classes had prisoners, police,
           parole officers  and community people all 
           learning in the same classroom”
  
The halfway house had a very bad reputation so I decided to change that. I talked CDI into opening the technology classes to the community; half of the class was prisoners and the other half community people. Eventually the classes had prisoners; police, the parole officers and community people all learning in the same classroom. I remember one lady from the community showed up but she did not join the class. After the class was over she approached me and revealed that she was leery of sitting next to criminals. I asked her - “What do I represent to you?” She said “You are my professor – you are giving me something valuable that I can carry with me in life.” I told her that two month before, I was one of these guys from the halfway house, serving time for a very similar crime. From that moment on she got comfortable with the kids. To this day she comes to the center and brings cookies for the kids.

 In 2010 I was promoted to Supervisor of CDI Community of Francisco a big Cultural Center in Rio, where Chico Buarque: the famous musician of Brazil, the “Bob Dylan of Brazil”, heads the center. He started the center and it is the largest CDI center with 55 computers. “Today I am a new person, with a new life.”

My life has totally transformed. Last year I traveled by boat for the first time to an event given by British Gas Energy; 55 companies were there. I was the keynote speaker at the event. Last November, I flew for the first time to attend a meeting with Michael Dell. Dell is CDI’s largest partner. Michael was visiting one of the CDI centers near the Dell factory and I was in a meeting with him along with Rodrigo.

Today I am a new person with a new life. I went back to school, I left my old neighborhood and now I am a CDI supervisor in their largest center. The other day I went back to visit the CDI center in my old community and I ran into one of the leaders of the gang I used to be in. He asked me “How is this CDI shit going, I saw you on TV”. He asked me if I wanted to come back to the old life and I told him “No I’m good”.

My Greatest Life Lesson
There is much to learn in life. Even when you think you know it all there is much more to learn. Even the richest or most celebrated person has much to learn in life.

You can change your life. Sometimes when we go through difficult stages in our life we think that this is how it will be forever. We believe this is my lot in life. That is when you have to fight the hardest and you have to see and discover that you can change your life.

My Values
I value my daughter, my life and social responsibility –  In that order

My Vision
I’d like to see all the communities in Rio grow in partnership with the social sector. I see change happening; I believe we are ready to change and grow.

My Message To Cynics, the Hopeless and Young People

Wake up! Be responsible for your actions because life is not a joke. I have lost a lot of my friends so appreciate your life. 

In my next post I will share more CDI stories of  amazing transformations

May all your beautiful hopes and dreams come true!

Michele

www.dreammakers.org