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Country: Brazil
Organization: RESPOSTA
Sector Focus - Business
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2003
Project URL: http://www.resposta.org.br
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - To develop Good Practices of Protection to children and teenagers against trafficking and sexual exploitation, through social mobilization of the corporate sector acting in the gas station market along Brazil’s highways.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - This initiative is innovative as it encourages the involvement of the corporate sector with an issue deeply related to the nature of their businesses. However, this sector has no expertise to start acting on human rights. That’s why this initiative has so great a potential to become a benchmark social intervention by ensuring alignment between the companies’ missions and their surroundings. Recent data on sexual exploitation point to the fact that Brazilian highways are privileged routes for human beings trafficking at national level. Brazil’s geographic location, especially in the Triple Border region, gives easy access to other South American countries. In 2007, the mapping effort made by the Federal Highway Police identified 1,918 locations considered to be “vulnerable” to sexual violence against children and teenagers along the +60 thousand kilometers of federal highways. It’s an increase of about 55% compared to 2006, when 1,222 locations were identified. The state with more points of vulnerability is Minas Gerais, with 290 locations (100 more than last year). Rio Grande do Sul is the second most vulnerable state, with 217 risk locations (4 times more than in the last mapping). Because of that, investments on social mobilization among the gas stations network are needed, as these are the places where highway workers, truck drivers and – mainly – teenagers in transit are most concentrated.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - RESPOSTA’s challenge is to realize a good case practices program on protection of children and teenagers along Brazil’s highways network, with a pilot project being implemented in ALESAT network – the sixth biggest oil distributor in the country, operating in 21 of the 26 Brazilian states. This initiative will be based on the following steps: 1. Social mobilization in the corporate sector to give visibility to the issue; 2. To develop the good practices manual about protection of children and teenagers on highways; 3. To create a reporting system inside the companies to investigate possible situations of violation of sexual and reproductive rights of children and teenagers – and report them to competent authorities.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - This idea has the following expansion plan: 1. to promote social mobilization – through campaign development – in important cities of Rio Grande do Norte state where ALESAT’s gas stations are located, and expand to the rest of the states after corrective measures are defined and implemented; 2. To systematize this experience through evaluations of the lessons learned in the process; 3. To develop the Good Practices on Protection of Children and Teenagers on Highways Manual; 4. Disseminate good practices in other oil distributors acting in Brazil; 5. To foster RESPOSTA’s alliances with Latin American tourism actors to encourage replication in other countries.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - There is established institutional contact with ALESAT, a company originally from Rio Grande do Norte that maintains operations in 21 Brazilian states
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - The protection of children and teenagers to be ensured by protective and proactive action of collaborators directly acting in gas stations located in Brazilian highways, through incorporation of good practices.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - For a start, collaborators in the 1,200 gas stations of ALESAT’s network, spread in 21 Brazilian states, the truck drivers of ALESAT’s own 160 trucks and children and teenagers in transit inside Brazilian territory.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - 1. Contribute to give visibility to sexual exploitation/trafficking and how they could be related with private social investment and corporate social responsibility of the companies acting in gas station activities; 2. To promote understanding of how the children and teenagers protection network works for collaborators; 3. Promote articulation between private initiative and Federal Highway Police.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - 1. Adults who can learn to protect children and teenagers; 2. Children and teenagers who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - RESPOSTAS’s strategic planning has highlighted the following measures to contribute with its own sustainability: a) Development of projects for cooperative agencies; b) Resource mobilization of companies and individuals; c) Selling of products with RESPOSTA’s trademark. Nowadays, RESPOSTA has financing partnerships with the European Commission, DKA-Austria and Groupe Development
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: Annual budget: R$300,000. Revenues generated during the year: R$7,000. Team: Resposta is composed by Partners, Team and Voluntaries. The organization’s team is distributed in Executive Board, Advocacy, Studies Sector, Good Practices Sector and Financial & Accounting. There are 4 part-time people, 2 full-time ones and 5 voluntaries in single activities. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - For this innovation to sustain itself, we need: 1. To involve other corporate groups for them to adopt the good practices manuals; 2. Private social investments mobilization, aiming to ensure that activities directed to collaborators and final consumers are financed by the gas station networks.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - Financial sustainability is a constant challenge, and in this specific case there are external variables not in our control – for example: change in ALESAT’s executive board, selling, fusion or bankruptcy of the company impacting the project, etc. To minimize these threats we need to adopt preventive measures, like to make an effort to acquire a new inter-sectorial alliance with another organization besides ALESAT and the hiring of a person exclusively to take care of the partnerships, increasing dynamism to the activities.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The origins of this innovation come from Resposta’s expertise on mobilization of tourism sector to act on children and teenager sexual exploitations through implementation of the Tourism Behavior Code Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Teenagers in 116 companies in Rio Grande do Norte. Looking at the results of sexual exploitation in highways mapping and research, RESPOSTA intends to adapt its methodology, already tested and successful with the tourism sector, to the oil distributor companies, located alongside the highways and considered to be the meeting centers of boys and girls with the truck drivers and workers that enable the internal trafficking
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Ana Paula Felizardo was born in the state of Ceará. She is 29 years old and works in the social sector since she was 16. She’s a Management student, founder-partner of RESPOSTA, Ashoka Fellow and member of the Brazilian Association for the Development of Leadership to Sustainable Development. Winner of Claudia Award as Social Initiative of the Year 2005. Her biography is part of the book Women of Brazil, and her work was recently recognized with the Tourism Social Responsibility Award, an initiative headed by Fundação Getulio Vargas, Tourism Ministry and Childhood Foundation
Contact Information:
Ana Paula Felizardo
-- RESPOSTA (NGO) anapaula@resposta.org.br Rua Seridó, 479 Sala 02 Petrópolis Natal - RN Brazil Tel: 55 84 3201-9436 Fax: 55 11 30859190 Website: www.resposta.org.br Discussions about this entry |
Paths of protection: prevention of sexual exploitation of children and teenagers in Brazilian highways through corporate mobiliz
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On July 16, 2008, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Ending Global Slavery” Competition and would like to pass on the following feedback for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators who are exposing, confronting and ending modern day slavery. We wish you continued luck with your sustainable, innovative, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“Brazil is an economic engine that is growing in leaps and bounds. It is great to see how many people in Brazil and Latin America are innovating with these great solutions to counter the negative consequences of economic growth. This initiative goes right to the source of the situation and provides a model that can be adopted in other countries around the world.”
“This program is innovative by working with corporate sponsors located along highways – areas renowned for high incidents of human trafficking. I am curious about the organization’s plans for further expansion. Does it anticipate working with organizations in addition to ALESAT in the future? Expansion to the governmental and citizen sectors could build its power and impact.”
“We would like to connect this initiative with the Visayan Forum Foundation in the Philippines. Both innovations have successfully connected the private sector with the police and transportation sector.”
- Changemakers “Ending Global Slavery” Judges: United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking, International Organization for Migration, Design Within Reach, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Humanity United.
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The Changemakers Team
Ashoka's Changemakers
RESPOSTA and the great work of the Ana Paula is a example for children programs of latin america.
congratulations and that God help you day by day.
You and your family are so generous.
God bless!
José Fernandes
São Paulo - SP, Brasil