Associação Saúde Criança

Saúde Criança is recognized as the best NGO in Latin America

The year of 2012 forecasts good news. At the beginning of the Brazilian summer vacation in early February, news from wintry Switzerland heated the hearts of Chiquinho´s friends: Associação Saúde Criança (Child Health Association) was ranked first in Latin America and 38^th in the world among the 100 best NGOs listed by The Global Journal. The Swiss magazine, a new publication dedicated to innovative projects of global interest, recognizes the importance of social organizations as agents of change. The magazine based its research on the criteria of innovation, impact, efficiency, strategy, financial management, transparency, sustainability and peer review (NGO and donor perceptions / awards and recognition). This good news is the most recent recognition that the Association has received since last year. Last November, we were selected by the Association of Business and Professional Women of Rio de Janeiro to receive both the Special Highlight and Health prizes. In December, Saúde Criança won Ashoka Changemakers’s “Making More Health” competition. Its methodology was appointed as an agent of transformation for family, individual, and community welfare. Last Christmas Eve, I was fortunate enough to be honored by O Dia, a newspaper from Rio, with the Pride of Rio medal, which is awarded to those who “help improve Rio.” And when Bill and Melinda Gates invited 300 philanthropists to Seattle, WA, USA, for the inauguration of the Visitors Center named after the couple, I was invited to attend. Together with four other Ashoka members, I told the exclusive audience about the beginnings of the methodology that has transformed the lives of more than 40 thousand people along its 20 years of existence. I was interviewed by journalist Cora Rónai for the February 5^th, Sunday edition of O Globo newspaper. She wrote how the path of good is hard but pleasing, since, after all, “the results are excellent: the number of readmissions of the children assisted falls an average 65% and the family income increases an average 40%.” 2012 is only just beginning and already our schedules are becoming busy. In late March, Cristiana Velloso and I will participate in the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship held in Oxford, where, for the fourth time, I will present Associação Saúde Criança’s methodology to the world. I can’t help but look back on how important this organization has been to Saúde Criança. Since 2006, the Skoll Foundation’s financial support has been essential to the realization of our dream. Without doubt, the exchange of knowledge and ideas will continue to help ASC and the replication of its methodology long into its future. As a member of Skoll, I will participate in this meeting of the minds with other social entrepreneurs at one of the oldest universities in the world, Oxford University. We extend our deepest thanks to Jeff Skoll, Sally Osberg, and the entire team at the Skoll Foundation. April marks the premiere of “Who Cares” (“Quem se Importa”), a documentary directed by Mara Mourão and narrated by actor Rodrigo Santoro about social entrepreneurs all over the world. Mara and her crew travelled across various continents to meet people whose work makes a difference in the lives of thousands, and I was included as one of the protagonists. I was impressed by the force and sensitivity shown in “Quem se Importa” and I truly believe that it has the potential to rally millions of people. The movie seeks the answer to the question, who cares? I know we do, and so I ask, do you? Watch this documentary, soon to be at a cinema near you, and engage yourself in the fight for a better world.

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