Yesterday was the first formal presentation of the São Paulo RJ project, 'Justiça e educação', to the justice and education communities in Rio de Janeiro. Most of those who have made these projects possible - in São Caetano do Sul, in Guarulhos, in Heliopolis, in Campinas and elsewhere - spoke, and even though the city was under the second day of torrential rain and it was the friday before a holiday weekend, there wasn't a free seat and many stood until the end.

Rio's new education secretary was present and after sharing that she'd never heard of RJ and hearing the descriptions of what we have done in SP said simply, "Where have you guys been all my life?!" The head of the Red Cross in Rio also spoke, sharing the sobering fact that the Red Cross works in areas of armed warfare and humanitarian disaster - neither of which Rio has, and yet here they are, a reflection of how integrated into daily life dynamics otherwise associated with war and disaster have become in the city.

However, what struck me most were the talks of two school teachers. The newspaper this morning reminds us that more than half of Brazilian families live on less than US$5 a day. Many have far less. The schools these two teachers work in serve such communities - one in São Paulo city's largest favela, one on the semi-rural outskirts of Guarulhos, the second largest city in SP state. As Edivaldo, the first to speak, said quite simply: "Restorative Circles have changed my school. We might think of giving up other projects we have, but never this one. We do a lot of Circles, and from this you might think 'Oh, they have a lot of fights at the school', but no - we do a lot of Circles because the school has learnt that this is the way to have conflicts. So we stop violence. We bring it the Circle and then it's done."

Angela, who spoke next, told her story with RC. 19 years a sports teacher, she described the amazement of her colleagues when she said she wanted to train as a facilitator. They thought of her as a 'take no prisoners' teacher and she agreed. What changed her round, she said, was a semi-simulated Circle she participated in, during an initial presentation at her school. She played the mother of a student, bullied by colleagues, and was relishing the verbal combat the real life scenario gave her. After listening to those who'd taunted 'her' child she was ready to charge in, when the facilitator asked her to reflect back the essence of what she'd heard them say. The experience, she said, stopped her completely in her tracks. "I was ready to let them have it, but when I heard those words a space opened up, and into it I could see a whole other way of us being together in that situation. It changed me. It changed me as a person - I was different at home, I was different at school. I applied to go back to university, to study Restorative Justice. And I began to facilitate Circles."

Angela's tears, as she shared the story of a Circle she had facilitated in her school, and sung the song composed by a participant as part of the Agreed Action Plan, invited all of us present to drop below the roles we play, the institutions we belong to, the beliefs we hold (and hold against others). The day had been challenging for me on several fronts. It was the first such event in 5 years at which I had not been invited to speak - and there were unspoken pains, for reasons I was not fully aware of, coming from others present. Each speaker referred to me and my contribution, and I was by turns gratified and pained by the ambiguity of my position. At that moment however, there was nothing but warmth, depth and connection in my heart. I looked round the room and there was the quality of meaningful silence I have seen in so many Circles.

The education secretary set up a meeting for next week. The chief judge asked me to call her. The information shared that day was key to such a desire to collaborate and learn. And I think whatever happens from now on, it's quality will be marked by Angela's living, breathing example of the doors RJ opens in us, and between us.