In Brazil, There are numerous projects that rely on volunteer work to help people in vulnerable situations . This Thursday (5), we celebrate the International Volunteer Day created by the United Nations (UN) in 1985 to honor these efforts and encourage more people to engage in solidarity actions.
One of the greatest examples of volunteering in Brazil is the Amigos do Bem Institution, which has been transforming lives in the northeastern hinterland for over 30 years with the support of more than 10 thousand volunteers, being the institution with the most active volunteers in the country.
The organization develops initiatives aimed at education, income generation, health, access to water and housing, benefiting more than 150 thousand people monthly in 300 villages in the states of Alagoas, Pernambuco and Ceará.
The institution maintains four Transformation Centers, where more than 10 thousand children and young people participate daily in educational and cultural activities. Furthermore, it created the “Cities of Good”, with complete infrastructure in Alagoas, Pernambuco and Ceará, which offer decent housing for families who previously lived in precarious conditions.
In the communities served, Amigos do Bem has already built 123 cisterns and 75 artesian wells, to ensure access to water for thousands of people who previously traveled long distances in search of this resource. According to the organization, in one year alone, more than 1.3 billion liters of water are distributed in the region.
Alcione Albanesi, founder of the institution, highlights the importance of union between civil society, companies and government to tackle inequality in Brazil, which occupies 8th place in the UN ranking of social inequality.
“We have reached this point with this inequality because of an omission on the part of all of us, a view that did not happen in a profound way. Our country is very big and the government cannot solve it alone. So we need to come together to take care of people”
Alcione Albanesi
With the motto “If I can’t do everything I should, I should at least do everything I can”, the team of volunteers works to try to reduce hunger and poverty in the northeastern hinterland. Concentrated in São Paulo and in regions of the northeast, volunteers are divided into 140 work teams with different activities.
They are dedicated to collecting and distributing food, sorting donations, restoring toys and monitoring projects.
Medical care
The Amigos do Bem Institution has a network of volunteer doctors, they travel every month to the northeastern hinterland to provide medical and dental care at the organization’s Health Centers.
In addition, doctors also visit more remote villages to closely monitor families registered with the institution. The organization also distributes free medicines and prescription glasses. Each year, more than 190 thousand services are provided.
The doctor and coordinator of the institution’s health projects, Luiz Augusto Menegazzo, is one of the pioneering volunteers, working since the project’s founding in 1993. He recalls the beginning of the initiative:
“We didn’t think the project would take on this magnitude. In the beginning, they were occasional trips, but, when we realized people’s needs, we had to take action to try to change their lives, and not just provide occasional services”
Luiz Augusto Menegazzo
The coordinator also highlights that the services provided by volunteer doctors, although they are specialists, are of a general nature to adapt to the local needs and the people served.
“As these regions lack basic sanitation, most diseases are related to this lack”, explains Menegazzo
The coordinator also recalls remarkable stories, such as that of a lady in the interior of Ceará who suffered from intense headaches. After being referred for more complex tests, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Due to the intervention of project doctors, his life was saved.
“What has the most impact is the improvement in the quality of life that we provide with adequate health monitoring. My motivation comes from the desire to transform these people’s reality for the better”, concluded Menegazzo.
Generation of employment and income
The institution also built Chestnut and Sweet Processing Factories, and Sewing and Craft Workshops with the aim of generating income and developing the potential of the regions served to guarantee economic autonomy to the communities.
The organization generates more than 1,500 jobs in 15 production units in the hinterland and all revenue obtained from the sale of products is donated to the institution’s social projects. The goal is to expand, in the coming years, both assistance to families and employment and income opportunities in the region.
The coordinator of the team responsible for the commercial part, Thainá Araújo, explains the strategies used to boost product sales.
“We entered into partnerships with large supermarket chains to sell the Amigos do Bem chestnut, which is produced in the hinterland and sold throughout Brazil”
Thainá Araújo
The coordinator also said that in addition to partnerships with supermarkets, the institution also partners with restaurants that offer customers the possibility of donating directly to the project, helping to fund the actions carried out.
“These initiatives allow the organization to sustain itself and continue transforming lives”, added Thainá.
Family tradition
One of the characteristics that draws the most attention to the project is the loyalty of the volunteers, many of whom remain with the organization for long periods. In some cases, the tradition of helping is passed down from generation to generation within families.
Thainá Araújo, coordinator of the commercial area, says that her parents participated in the project and that, since she was little, she was also involved. Today, she takes her daughter, Julia Ferrari, just three years old, to participate in the activities.
“My daughter loves it, she goes there and organizes the chestnuts on the market shelves. There are days when she asks: ‘Mommy, is today the day to go to Amigos do Bem?’ At three years old, she already has this awareness”, he stated.
“Goodness can be taught, and I believe that volunteer work is a great opportunity for transformation”, added Araújo.
Alcione Albanesi, founder of the institution, highlighted that, of the more than 10 thousand volunteers who are part of the project, 30% have been with the organization since the beginning and 50% for more than 15 years.
“This gives us a lot of pride, because keeping volunteers is very difficult, and we are doing it very successfully”, he emphasized.
Achievements
The institution Amigos do Bem also joined the UN Global Compact in Brazil, an initiative that aims to mobilize the business community to adopt and promote, in their business practices, ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and combat to corruption.
Furthermore, the institution’s founder, Albanesi, was recognized as one of the first leaders to make an impact on eradicating poverty, one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The legacy I want to leave is that of having helped other people to live with dignity. I want to look back and see that I was a transformative agent, capable of improving other people’s lives”, declared Albanesi.
This content was originally published in Volunteer Day: Amigos do Bem mobilizes more than 10 thousand volunteers to transform the northeastern hinterland on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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