Photo: Picture: Beto Figueiroa
The sound of the egg truck, so common in Brazilian peripheries, has gained a new significance in the communities of Pernambuco. Instead of simply announcing the sale of eggs, the vehicle started circulating with messages of awareness about violence against women, divulgation of reporting channels, and distribution of educational materials.
The initiative, called “Egg Truck for Women’s Lives”, is conducted by GAJOP and by the Pernambuco Public Safety Forum, with support from the Brazil Human Rights Fund.
The action arose from a concern shared by the organizations: though there are campaigns in social media and information available in the internet, many women remain deprived of effective access to the protection and sheltering channels.
“It’s not enough for the information to be available. We want to make sure that it got to the women”, explains Edna Jatobá, executive director of GAJOP.
Popular communication to tackle feminicide
The idea was born from observing the growth of violence against women in Pernambuco and the need to think up strategies closer to the reality of peripheral territories.
According to the study Portrait of Feminicides in Brazil, by the Brazilian Public Safety Forum, Pernambuco has recorded 88 feminicides in 2025. A 14% increase in relation to the previous year. That means that, in the state, a woman was murdered every four days.
Photo: Picture: Beto Figueiroa
That was the context in which the Popular Public Safety Forum decided to bet on a social technology already consolidated in the daily life of the communities. “The egg truck is a symbol of popular economy, present in the daily life of peripheral neighborhoods. We realized that it goes into people’s houses, draws attention, and is part of the routine”, affirms Edna.
The voiceover is the traditional one, inspired by the announcements already popular among those who know them. The known catchphrase of the salesmen has gained a new version: “Raise awareness feeding and feed raising awareness”.
Information that circulates along daily life
In the actions, a lawyer is available to offer immediate legal assistance. In Peixinhos, the return was instantaneous: women sought support to understand how to protect nieces and neighbors, breaking the isolation that oftentimes protects the aggressor.
As well as the audio message, the action also distributes small cartons of eggs accompanied by educational materials produced especially for the campaign. Among them are dish towels with phrases of support and the 180 phone number, cake recipes with orientations about domestic violence, and flyers aimed towards dialoguing with evangelical women.
“The dish towels have that grandma’s house aesthetic, something affective and everyday. The idea was that these messages remain visible inside the houses”, relays Edna.
The first actions were conducted in the neighborhoods of Peixinhos and Caranguejo Tabaiares, in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, territories where the Popular Public Safety Forum already acts alongside community collectives.
In some areas, the car couldn’t even get through the narrow alleyways. The community itself found solutions to keep the action happening. “At a certain point a handcart appeared, then a portable speaker box, and when we noticed there were already people from the community conducting everything alongside us”, she recalls.
Photo: Picture: Beto Figueiroa
The action has already been through communities such as Peixinhos and Caranguejo Tabaiares. In the latest one, the community’s creativity ensured the message’s reach: were the truck couldn’t pass due to the narrow alleyways, the eggs proceeded in a handcart and the broadcasting was boosted by a Bluetooth speaker brought by the residents.
Immediate impact in the territories
The action’s effects started to show up right in the first activities. In Peixinhos, women sought the legal counsel offered by the team after receiving the informative materials.
“There were women asking how the 180 worked, wanting to know how to help relatives that suffered violence. The information began generating movement”, claims Edna.
Another aspect that drew the team’s attention was the way in which the women took to using the presence of the professionals to take information into their own homes. “Many called us in to explain everything looking at the men of the family. It was as if saying: now there’s a support network and everybody knows”, she says.
That capillarity enables the project’s team to enter homes wherein the aggressor is present. Edna says that, in many occasions, women invited the team to come inside and explain the actions right in front of their partners, using the project’s presence as a form of protection and warning. “They brought us inside and asked us to explain, looking at the man’s face. That has an effect that we can’t calculate, but is fundamental”, she says
The repercussion also made other communities look for GAJOP through social media asking for the egg truck to circulate on their territories.
Photo: Picture: Beto Figueiroa
Brazil Fund’s support strengthens acting in the territories
The Brazil Fund’s support has helped ensure the production of materials, the logistics of activities, and the strengthening of community articulation. Part of the resources came from the institutional support to GAJOP and the initiatives supported alongside the Popular Public Safety Forum of the Northeast
Today, each action distributes around 600 eggs and reaches about 100 residencies by territory. Moreover, partner organizations took to replicating the initiative in other regions of the state.
“The most beautiful thing is seeing people taking charge of the action. The collectives mobilize, the communities participate, and the organizations begin to build together new forms of tackling violence”, highlights Edna.
Popular ideas to tackle violence
The egg truck is only one of the strategies thought up by the Popular Public Safety Forum within an agenda called “popular ideas to tackle violence”.
The next actions include initiatives in soccer fields, barbershops, popular fairs, and even a mobilization with a traditional “carreta furacão” to conscientize children and teenagers about sexual violence and reporting channels.
“We want to think up strategies that dialogue with the actual lives of people, with that which is part of the communities’ everyday lives”, resumes Edna.
The project is a collective effort that involves the Brazil Fund, Open Society, TDH and a network of local organizations such as the Black Evangelical Women’s Network, the Black Evangelical Movement, the Fuzuê Collective, the Cabo Women’s Center, and the Fogo Cruzado Institute.
