03/31/2020
Insper — through the Women and Territory Center of its Cities Lab, in partnership with BEĨ Editora publishing house, the economics platform Por quê? Economês em Bom Português and the BEĨ Institute, with support from the Tide Setubal Foundation and the Galo da Manhã Institute, under the coordination of João Oliveira, member of Insper’s Board, and collaboration from Carolina da Costa —, is submitting a request for emergency aid to allocate funds directly to community leaders for food staples and other basic household items.
Marcelo Orticelli, Dean of Executive Education and Development, further explains the initiative and how to contribute to this action:
How did the idea for this emergency action come about?
During a conversation, Carolina da Costa proposed to Tomas Alvim and Marisa Salles a joint action for the immediate mobilization of society. Alvim and Salles are editors and co-founders of the Arq.Futuro platform and partners at BEĨ Editora. At a meeting of the group coordinated by João Oliveira, our Board Member, we discussed how we could help communities with urgent needs caused by the standstill of commerce and the economy.
Thus, the professors who participate in the Women and Territory Center — which is part of the Cities Laboratory developed by Insper and Arq. Futuro — had contacted community leaders to estimate the number of families with those needs. They had found out that some 27,000 families, which is approximately 108,000 people, need immediate help.
What is the Cities Lab and the Women and Territory Center?
It was a dream of Claudio Haddad, our Chairman of the Board, for Insper to start working in the field of Cities and Urbanism. We already had some related courses but not a structured center. So, in partnership with Arq. Futuro, we had created the Cities Lab — an interdisciplinary platform for learning, research, and innovation about cities.
One of the Laboratory’s Centers is that of Women and Territory, which discusses how the inclusion of women occurs in the administration and preparation of public policies for cities. We have with us Marisa Salles from BEĨ as an advisor to this group, which is coordinated by Regina Madalozzo, who is a professor at Insper. It also counts on Tania Haddad, Member of Insper’s Board, Ana Carla Abraão Costa, from Oliver Wyman, as well as a group of teachers linked to the communities, and leaders in vulnerable territories. These leaders are women who are essential for research and the learning activities fostered by the Center and responsible for the logistics and management of the resources raised in this emergency action.
What makes for this emergency action to help communities?
The action consists of a request for emergency aid for purchasing food staples and other basic household items, which will be channeled to community leaders. The idea is to raise a total of BRL 8,190,000.00, divided into two stages – an immediate R$ 4,095,000.00 one and another of the same sum in 15 days. That is because the food staples and other items should meet the families’ needs for a fortnight. We seek everyone’s help in these first stages, and we have the ideal of contributions from large institutions, too, to the development of subsequent actions in the medium and long terms. As the crisis unfolds, complementary actions will be necessary, but we are currently focusing on the most urgent ones.
Why the decision to allocate the money directly to community leaders?
In our assessment, this is the most agile way to make our contribution effective. The donations will be received by people and organizations that, for years, have been dedicated to supporting vulnerable communities in São Paulo. They also have a network that is already structured and has great capillarity, which facilitates distribution logistics.
The funds will be directed to:
How to contribute to this initiative?
Everyone’s help at this dire time is crucial for each family and society as a whole.
Here are the details of the Brazilian bank account for donations:
Donors must send a copy of the receipt to mirene@ftas.org.br so that donation receipts can be drawn up.
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