Originalmente publicado por Brazil Foundation em 20/11/2019.
Mulheres Notáveis
At the VI Gala São Paulo on Nov. 13th BrazilFoundation will celebrate the lives and work of a group of outstanding women, including one non-binary person, who have stood out in their respective fields. The names were chosen from a panel composed of seven women who represent philanthropy in Brazil: Bel Santos Mayer, Carola Matarazzo, Denise Antão, Isabel Clavelin, Maria da Penha, Suzana Pires and Tiana Lins. We will also honor three Brazilian women whose work and journeys have contributed greatly to philanthropy and social development in Brazil.
Honoring
Alcione Albanesi, Amigos do Bem
Alcione Albanesi is a businesswoman and entrepreneur who built a leading lighting company in Brazil. In 1993, she founded Amigos do Bem, one of the largest projects in Brazil. With the courage, determination and love of its 9,200 volunteers, the project is transforming the lives of 75,000 people living in extreme poverty in Brazil’s northeastern Sertão region. With a socially sustainable development model it generates education, work and income for thousands of people.
Alcione has won several diverse awards such as Ernst Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Editora Globo’s Project Generosity, Claudia Mulher and Trip Transformadores. In 2018, she was honored with the title of Pernambucan Citizen.
Cida Bento, Centro de Estudos das Relações de Trabalho e Desigualdades (CEERT)
Cida Bento has a PhD in Psychology and is the Executive Coordinator of the Center for Studies on Labor Relations and Inequalities (CEERT), which since 1990 has conducted research and programs focused on valuing diversity and promoting racial and gender equality in the labor market.
In 2015, Cida was selected by “The Economist” as one of the 50 most influential diversity professionals in the world. She is currently a member of the UN Women Advisory Group and the Federal Council of Psychology’s Human Rights Commission.
Natalie Klein Duek, Instituto Samuel Klein
Natalie Klein is founder and CIO of nk, a multi-brand with three in house labels and a portfolio that represents the most relevant national and international brands. At 21 she created a store where style was as important as quality and brands were aligned with the São Paulo personality. Natalie has been selected for seven consecutive years by the Business of Fashion as one of the 500 most influential personalities in the world of fashion and has become a reference in the world market.
In 2014, she founded the Samuel Klein Institute in partnership with her brother, Raphael, with the mission of promoting social investment in tribute to Samuel Klein’s values and legacy.
Celebrating
Charô Nunes
Charô Nunes is a communications professional. With a degree in architecture and urbanism, she is an intersectional feminist and the coordinator for Black Bloggers, a collective publishing platform created in 2013 with content produced by black women. Recognizing writing as a weapon for black women, the site is a community of over 400 women with 1,300 works, who debate gender and race.
Charô is also director of the Me Representa platform, which maps pro-human rights candidates in order to better inform and aid in the election of legislative officials more representative of women, black people and LGBT.
Cláudia Bork Saad
Cláudia Bork Saad is a publicist and an advisor for the NGO IKMR “I Know My Rights “, which assists refugee children in Brazil. She conceived and produced the project and book “Expressions and Stories”, which brings together photos of more than 100 people by photographer Angelo Pastorello, and where the profits from the sale of the book will be reinvested in the institution.
Cláudia has been dedicated to important social causes for several years. Her personal involvement with socio-educational projects began in 2002, when she worked on the “Escola do Futuro” project, which benefited 800 socially vulnerable children in São Paulo.
Denise Damiani
Denise Damiani is a women’s rights activist. A graduate in digital systems engineering with a postgraduate degree in business, she develops plans and actions to narrow the gender gap in corporate environments.
Growing up in a family with many men and opting for a predominantly male career made her realize the lack of feminine presence and vision in the business world. She began to devote herself to female empowerment through financial literacy. Today she has her own consulting business and is an administrative advisor. Throughout her career, she has been a partner and advisor to Accenture and Bain & Co.
Denise Dora
Denise Dora is an activist and human rights lawyer. She is the founder and executive director of Themis – Legal Counsel and Gender Studies, which acts to promote a support network that is challenging and defending women’s fundamental rights. Themis created the Popular Legal Promoters program in Brazil, which trains women with basic legal knowledge for them to become community leaders – today there are similar projects in all states.
Denise has publications on Women’s Rights and Human Rights and is currently a partner in a law firm specializing in the rights of civil society organizations, discrimination and socio-environmental law. She earned a Law degree and has a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law and in History, Politics and Cultural Goods. She was responsible for the Ford Foundation’s Human Rights Office in Brazil, between 2000 and 2011.
Elena Landau
Elena Landau is president of the Academic Council of the Free, a non-partisan liberal movement that develops leadership, public policies and social impact projects. She is credited as a master’s graduate in Economics, a lawyer specializing in regulation of the electricity sector, a columnist for the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, the director of privatization at BNDES and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Eletrobrás.
She worked on the structural reformation of Brazil in the 1990s, when she was director of Brazil’s National Privatization Program. She is a partner at Sérgio Bermudes and operates in the area of energy and regulation.
Estela Renner
Estela Renner is a filmmaker and co-founder of Maria Farinha Films, a production company that brings attention to children’s rights. She studied film in Miami and was a writer and director of short and medium-length films, and advertising campaigns. She directed the movies “Child, the Soul of Business” (2008), about the effects of advertising on Children, and “Far Beyond Weight” (2012) about the childhood obesity epidemic, which have been viewed by over two million people and influenced change in public policy.
Estela wrote and directed the documentary “The Beginning of Life” (2016), about the importance of human interaction in the early years of life. She was honored by Trip Transformadores (2016) for the creation of works directed toward helping promote social and environmental change. She directed the documentary “Rethink the Praise” (2017), which reflects on the way children are praised and was the general director of the series “Aruanas” (2019), a co-production with Globo, which tells the story of three NGO activists defending the Environment.
Flávia Oliveira
Flávia Oliveira is a journalist specializing in the coverage of economics and social indicators. One of few black women in a position of opinion, she is a columnist for the newspaper O Globo, a commentator for GloboNews and for CBN Radio. She presented the 2019 season of the interview program Canal Futura, dedicated to the transformations of the job market. She grew up in Irajá, a carioca suburb. Flávia was born and chose to live in Rio de Janeiro. She is a member of the Amnesty International Brazil Advisory Council, the NGO A Drop in the Ocean, CEERT, Favelas Observatory, Lupa Agency and the Alliance Project.
She started as a reporter for Jornal do Commercio in 1992 and has worked at O Globo since 1994. She was an interim writer for Miriam Leitão’s column and writer of the Business & Company column. She received the Sim Award for Racial Equality (2019), from the Brazilian Identity Institute, in the category of Race on the agenda; Journalism for Tolerance Award (2003), from the International Federation of Journalists for co-editing the supplement “The Color of Brazil”; and the Elizabeth Neuffer Award from the UN correspondents for human development reporting.
Jurema Werneck
Jurema Werneck, is a black activist, doctor, author with a doctorate in Communication and Culture. Born in Morro dos Cabritos, Copacabana, she has a long history in the black population health movement and the fight for human rights. She is the founder of the NGO Criola, who since 1992 has acted to guarantee the rights of black women in the country. In 2017, she took over as Executive Director of Amnesty International Brasil, one of the largest and most important human rights organizations in the world.
Jurema serves on the board of directors of the Global Fund for Women and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian Fund for Human Rights. In 2000, she organized the book “Black Women’s Health: Our Steps Have Come from Far Away” (in conjunction with Evelyn C. White and Maria Luísa Mendonça).
Luiza Brasil
Luiza Brasil is a journalist with a degree in Social Communication from PUC-RIO, has taken courses in Fashion Styling at the London College of Fashion and Strategic Management in the Fashion Business at FGV Rio. She is a columnist for Glamor Brasil magazine and communicator on online platforms with her personal project, Mequetrefismos, focusing on Fashion, drawing parallels between Racial Representativeness, Female Power, Contemporary Behavior and Urban Lifestyle.
Among the awards received by Luiza, is the Social Influencers Against Racism, from Rio de Janeiro City Hall and the Generation Glamor Award – Woman of the Year, given by Glamor.
Mary Alegretti
Mary Allegretti is an Anthropologist, a Doctor of Sustainable Development, and has been working for over 40 years on extractive reserves research in the Amazon. She advised Chico Mendes from 1981 to 1988 and was Secretary of Coordination of the Amazon for the Ministry of the Environment from 1999 to 2003.
She dedicated her life to continuing Chico Mendes’s fight for the rights of the rubber tappers and the traditional extractive population at the NGO, Institute of Amazonian Studies. She won the Ecology and Environmentalism Award from the Curitiba City Council (2019), the Ford Environmental Conservation Award (2008), the Chico Mendes Government of Acre Award (2005), the Gold Medal from the WWF (1991), the UN Global 500 Award (1990) and the Environment Medal from the Better World Society (1989).
Pri Bertucci
Pri Bertucci is a social artist, queer, non-binary person, and founder of [SSEX BBOX], a social justice project created in 2009 to give visibility to the issues of gender and sexuality. The work focuses on rights, equity and voice of the LGBTQIA+ population, and works in the cities of San Francisco, São Paulo, Berlin and Barcelona.
They are a consultant on LGBTQIA + themes for companies and institutions and also work with Nonviolent Communication (CNV) uniting people and organizations within their communities, bringing about new ways of thinking and being, and posing social challenges to the world. In 2017, Pri was selected to participate in the Red Bull Amaphiko, Red Bull’s global program that supports the development of people who are proposing innovative solutions for social challenges.
Sônia Guajajara
Sônia belongs to the Guajajara / Tentehar people who inhabit the Arariboia Indigenous Forests, in Maranhão. In recent years, she has become a leading indigenous voice in Brazil, unifying over 305 peoples in the struggle against the interests of the most powerful sectors of Brazilian society.
In 2018, she became a candidate for the post of Vice President of the Republic, with a proposal of an indigenous, anti-capitalist, eco-socialist government. Her voice also has international reach: Sônia has already addressed the UN Human Rights Council and made appeals at the 2009 and 2017 World Climate Conferences (COP), in addition to the European Parliament among other organizations and international agencies.
Sueli Carneiro
Sueli Carneiro is a philosopher with a PhD in Education from the University of São Paulo, the founder and executive coordinator of the Geledés Institute of Black Women, and a fellow of Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs since 1992. She has been a member of the Tide Setúbal Foundation Board of Trustees, the Baobá Equity Fund for Racial Equality Deliberative Council and the Conectas Human Rights Deliberative Council. A feminist and anti-racism activist, she has authored several articles on gender, race and human rights issues in national and international publications. Most recently is “Writings about a Life”, 2018.
For her work, she has received the Bertha Lutz Award in 2003, Benedito Galvão Award in 2014, Human Rights of the French Republic Award in 1998, the Itaú Cultural in 2017 and Trip Transformadores in 2018.
Vilma Reis
Vilma Reis is a national symbol in the anti-racism struggle and against the genocide of black youth. A sociologist and a doctoral student in Ethnic and African Studies, over the past 35 years she has acted to guarantee and defend the rights of black women, the LGBTQIA+ community and the quilombola population.
She worked as general ombudsman for the Public Defender of Bahia (DP-BA) and was honored with the Zumbi dos Palmares Medal for working with black youth, defending LGBTQIA+ communities, and defending the rights of African based religions. In her career she has worked with various human rights collectives and participated in actions to improve black women’s lives in Salvador. She is a member of Mahin Black Women’s Organization.
