Mondo
Brazil: A look at a growing third sector economy
In a special report on the Brazilian third sector Vita Europe crosses the Atlantic to take a look at non-profit activites in a non-EU context: past present and future
di Staff
Brazil is, today, one of the most socially active countries in the world. It is no coincidence that it was chosen as location for the World Social Forum. But the journey that has brought the Brazilian third sector from its first officially recognized non profit organization, a hospital, in 1543 to what it is today, a third sector that employs more than one and a half million people and with an estimated volunteer force of tens of millions, has been fraught with civil and legal battles.
In a report that seeks to take a fresh look at this booming sector, Juliana Amaral Toledo and Michael Ambjorn, both Brazilian civil society experts, run us through the key moments that have shaped the non profit world in Brazil. From the informality of civil society during the military dictatorship in the 70?s through to the move to create formally recognised organisations in the 80?s, and the constant quest for funds in a country that faces its own fair share of development issues, the report gives us a glimpse into a non-European third sector reality. The lesson to be learned? That resources are not always the key to successful social investment.
But while the sector as whole may be booming, there are still those who manage to slip through the net. At least as famous as the favelas, Sao Paolo?s street children are known to sniff glue and smoke crack while the life of the city unfolds around them. Two projects, Projeto Quixote and Moinho da Luz, provide daily assistance to these ?urban refugees?, to those children who are exiles within their own city. Auro Danny Lescher and Cláudio Loureiro, both psychologists, work with Projeto Quixote and Moinho da Luz and Sao Paolo's street children on a daily basis. It is through their eyes that the urban regeneration of Sao Paolo is seen as more than a structural enterprise but as one that involves a very important shift in individual values.
