Innovation and education improve health in Rio's favelas.

Nanko van Buuren rushed back to the head office of the Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Social Healthcare, the non-profit group he started in 1989 that is best known by its Portuguese acronym of Ibiss. But his waiting colleagues are long-used to the erratic time-keeping of this tall Dutchman, whom the street children of Rio de Janeiro's favelas or slums call Paitrao, which combines the Portuguese words for father and boss. On this warm afternoon in mid-April, he was delayed because he had been touring some Ibiss projects with a delegation from Success for Kids, an educational charity backed by Madonna, the latest high-profile celebrity who wanted to tackle the entrenched poverty in the favelas. “Madonna called me personally last week to talk about how they can adapt Success for Kids to our own situation”, said van Burren. “They will have to adapt it because a lot of kids here are running around with guns because of organised crime and the drugs trade.”