For example, Susan Patterson, from Washington, DC, reluctantly joined friends on a favela tour in Rio in 2010.
Many of the active women in the favela had been factory workers, often unionized.
Police then establish a permanent base in the favela with officers trained in community policing.
BBC: Brazil police arrest alleged drug chief of Rocinha slum
Faced with such obstacles, Brazil's favela-dwellers have taken matters into their own hands, literally.
Silvinha Oliveira, resident of the Barreira do Vasco favela, always dreamed of having her own fashion business.
In general, Ms Perlman finds far more social mobility than the reams of favela studies would suggest.
ECONOMIST: To get out you need education, hard work and luck
He sought help from friends and family to sustain a judo training program for the favela youths.
Even former drug gang members took part in the 5km (3 mile) run through the favela's narrow streets.
BBC: Rio peace race retraces favela drug lords' escape route
Although Canto has spent most of his adulthood mentoring favela kids, he said he did not always know how to help.
Niemeyer hired proper seamstresses, most of them women from Rio's "favela" hillside slums who worked for samba schools, stitching extravagant Carnival costumes.
The UPPs open up the favela to industries such as tourism, about which Paulo Roberto, a bar owner in Santa Marta is optimistic.
FORBES: UPP Police Pacifying Units: Security & Governance in the Favela Part 2
One of its muddy streets of small shops boasts a branch of Banco Santander, opened last month the first bank inside a Rio favela.
The Challenge for Peace retraced the route used by drug traffickers to escape the Alemao favela when police moved in in November 2010.
BBC: Rio peace race retraces favela drug lords' escape route
But I spend almost all my money in the favela all the money I make from tourism goes back into the favela economy.
FORBES: Favela Tourism Provides Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Rio
On a recent incursion into the northern favela, Brasilandia, police formed a human chain as they climbed the steep hills with their guns drawn.
Silvinha Oliveira, a 32-year-old fashion entrepreneur, has lived in the Barreira do Vasco favela in the North Zone of Rio since the age of 9.
In the most successful favela-improvement schemes, residents are trained as builders.
For Silvinha, creativity and ambition within the favela are ways of combating the negative preconceptions people have about the slums as well as overcoming difficult conditions.
Whereas education levels were the best prediction of whether someone born in a favela would make it out, hard work and good luck were also needed.
ECONOMIST: To get out you need education, hard work and luck
Mr Fernando is one of the founders of AfroReggae, a cultural NGO that has mediated in conflicts between the police, the drug gangs and favela residents.
BBC: Rio peace race retraces favela drug lords' escape route
Police have been setting up checkpoints at entrances to the slum district - or favela - which is located close to tourist areas in Rio's south zone.
BBC: Brazil police arrest alleged drug chief of Rocinha slum
When trafficking factions clashed in Rocinha, a Rio favela, earlier this year, the state government sent in 1, 000 police and asked the federal government for army help.
While the vast majority of the tours are operated by companies outside the communities, the growth in favela tourism is an area of entrepreneurial opportunity for favela residents.
FORBES: Favela Tourism Provides Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Rio
Some residents of the favela could be seen looking out of their windows at the advancing police, while others broke down in tears when their homes were searched.
"I hope the next Pope follows in John Paul's style, the Pope who was closest to us and had the courage come to a favela, " says Paulo Roberto Muniz.
In recent years, there has been a huge increase in visitors to the city, adding a favela tour to the traditional must-sees such as Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain.
FORBES: Favela Tourism Provides Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Rio
He figures the access to computers and video technology will give them an incentive to work on their literacy skills and a better vision of the world outside the favela.
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