GRANT AWARDS
BrazilFoundation 2005 Grantees Meet in Rio for Festivities and Workshops
From July 11 to 13, BrazilFoundation welcomed its 31 new grantees for three days of learning, sharing and celebration in Rio de Janeiro.
Grantees hail from 26 cities and 10 states, ranging from Acre to São Paulo and from Maranhão to Rio Grande do Sul. The projects, as diverse as their geographies, represent the best of Brazil's social entrepreneurs and were selected from over 1,070 proposals received this year.
 |
 |
Gláucio Gomes, project analyst, with some of the 2005 grantees.
|
|
For two days, foundation grantees participated in forums and educational workshops, including sessions on marketing, program evaluation, sustainability and partnership building. Each of the grantees gave a formal presentation of their project. Project leaders were also able to compare their best practices and goals in work groups according to their grant area: education, health, human rights, citizenship (capacity building and basic rights and responsibilities) and culture.
Rafael dos Prazeres Amado, an alumni-teacher of Voz e Violinos (Voice and Violins), a project the foundation supports, said that the BrazilFoundation grant is helping dozens of youth in Niteroi exchange the streets for violins and flutes. "Without music, I really don't know where I'd be. With music, I have a direction in life," he said.
|
 |
|
Sheila Nogueira and Thiago Rodrigues announcing grantee awards.
|
Lenora Pinto Mendes is the musical director of Instituto Reciclarte, the organization that created Voz e Violinos. She shared her enthusiasm about BrazilFoundation's work. "Through the new grant we received, Reciclarte will hire six more music teachers, expand the number of children who receive our services, and offer a new flute class. We are very grateful to the foundation and to all the donors in the US who believe in our work and the work of other social projects in Brazil."
"Our project will benefit enormously from this grant," said Renata Toledo, founder and president of IBENS (The Brazilian Institute of Education and Sustainable Business). "And even beyond that, the opportunity that we had to share our experiences with other project leaders during the Rio meetings gave us the certainty and motivation to continue on this difficult but fulfilling path in the search for solutions to Brazil's complex social problems." BrazilFoundation's support will enable IBENS to train 20 families of dockworkers on Rio de Janeiro's coast in organizational techniques, cooperative management, and the sustainable production of oysters, thus mobilizing the community and creating income.
|
 |
|
Some of the 2005 grantees: Maritza Garcia (Saci Tererê), Anália Timbó (Tambores do Vidança), Daniel Marques Jr. (Óleos Vegetais em Campo Alegre) and Cecília Motta (Atendimento a Crianças e Adolescentes em Situação de Risco).
|
The three days of activities culminated in the festive Annual Grant Awards Ceremony held at FIRJAN, the Federation of Brazilian Industries in Rio de Janeiro. Over 300 guests attended, including BrazilFoundation board members Armando Strozenberg, president of Agência Publicitária Contemporânea and Claudius Ceccon, executive director of the Popular Image Creation Center in Rio.
Also in attendance were representatives of BrazilFoundation's corporate partners, including HSBC Bank, which sponsored two of this year's projects, and TAM Airlines, which donated airline tickets for BrazilFoundation analysts to visit project finalists on site and gave additional tickets for the grantees to travel to Rio. IBM, which built a database to enhance BrazilFoundation's communication and monitoring of grantees, also came out to show its support. Marta Ramos, chair of BrazilFoundation's new Miami volunteer committee enjoyed the event as did representatives from the Yale Alumni Chorus Foundation from New Haven, Connecticut, which supports the Casa de Santa Ana Choir, a 2003 BrazilFoundation grantee based in the favela Cidade de Deus. Youth from Voz e Violinos gave a rousing performance of Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins during the ceremony, earning a standing ovation and calls for encores.
 |
|
Members of Voz e Violinos perform.
|
|
Leona Forman, BrazilFoundation's president, believes that "the synergies, enthusiasm and experiences exchanged will inspire our new grantees as well as our friends, donors, volunteers and the staff teams in Rio and in NY to work even harder and enable the foundation to support more wonderful projects in 2006."
Susane Worcman, vice president of BrazilFoundation, heads the foundation's Rio office and organized the week's events with her staff and volunteers. For Susane, "the contact with the leaders of these projects gives us hope enough to be optimists in these difficult days Brazil is going through. They are the best of Brazil."
The new 2005 awards marks an important milestone for BrazilFoundation, bringing its total projects to 131 and social investments to almost $3 million since 2001.
- By Lorelei Williams
|
easy-print 
back to top