Youths armed with AK-47 rifles sit on street corners in the cramped Vigario Geral slum in Rio de Janeiro, reporting on a stranger?s movements through walkie-talkies. They are the foot soldiers of the drug gangs who rule the seaside city?s violent slums, or favelas.

Above them, in an upstairs room off an alleyway, Carlos Andre Santos is watching a group of youngsters go through a drumming routine. Three months ago, Carlos was a colleague of the gunmen as a manager in the trafficking gang that controls Vigario Geral ? the notorious Red Command. 

Now he is a teacher in one of Rio?s most successful social projects, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a grassroots cultural community built around the band AfroReggae that aims to guide youths away from the gangs. ?I was born here,? Carlos, 23, said. ?My childhood was really terrible, mostly because of the police. They don?t respect the people, not even the women and children.? 

He started as a trafficker at 15 and became head of marijuana sales in Vigario Geral. He quit in August after he was approached by AfroReggae founder Jose Junior. ?It?s another life,? he said. ?Now I don?t worry about the police, no more killing. My family are super-happy.? 

To grow up in Rio?s favelas is to grow up amid bloodshed and deprivation. Police rarely enter except in military-style invasions and routinely carry out extra-judicial killings. Rival drug gangs, which offer the main job opportunity for youths, wage periodic battles. Vigario Geral has for years been at war with neighbouring Parada de Lucas, ruled by the Third Command. The road separating them is dubbed the Gaza Strip. 

It was from a notorious massacre in Vigario Geral in 1993 that AfroReggae emerged. A police death squad murdered 21 men and youths in the slum in retaliation for the killing by traffickers of four policemen. One of the dead residents was the uncle of Anderson Sa, who was to become a leading figure in the project. ?I decided then I didn?t want to be a trafficker,? Anderson, now 24, told Reuters. Under Jose Junior?s leadership, the project sprang up around a newsletter dedicated to black music and politics. Then came the band and other activities. Although a youngster, Anderson was given a role as a coordinator and became a singer and bass player with the band. 

The idea was to offer youths an alternative to running with drug gangs. The project offered classes in music, dancing, sports and Brazil?s capoeira martial arts. Now Grupo Cultural AfroReggae involves about 2,000 children and youths in four favelas. Classes have extended to literacy programmes, parenting and job training. The AfroReggae band sings of favela life to hip-hop, rap and reggae beats. It?s 2002 album Cara Nova opened with the sound of a police helicopter and the crack of gunshots.

They played in Carnegie Hall in New York with the great Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso last year and have toured Europe. The world may soon be hearing even more of them. A film about the project, ?Favela Rising?, won the best new documentary at the Tribeca Film festival in New York in April and should open in US cinemas next year. AfroReggae are also shortlisted to open for the Rolling Stones at a free concert on Copacabana Beach in February. 

Back in Vigario Geral, the project is building a centre with a library and computers which will stay open all hours. ?Most of the violence is in the night so we want to give people a place to go,? Anderson said. In the rooms the group currently uses as its headquarters, two sub-groups rehearsed on a recent afternoon. A dozen teenage girls belonging to Akoni danced, played conga drums and chanted a song that hearkened back to their African roots. ?This has helped my self-esteem and the children?s,? said Akoni coordinator Mary Santos. ?Life here is very difficult, looking after children, husbands don?t work?. 

Despite AfroReggae?s successes, violence ebbs and flows.  As the AfroReggae rehearsal ends, kids in the street let off fireworks to warn traffickers police are approaching. ?AfroReggae?s goal is to stop this war,? Anderson said. 

Angus MACSWAN