The year is ending and 2023 is approaching. With the arrival of the New Year, many people set plans, objectives and goals to be executed or achieved in the coming months. The desire to get involved in volunteer projects and activities whose benefits are directed towards others is also a trend that arrives with the new year.
The Volunteering in Brazil 2021 survey, released in August 2022, the month of volunteering, indicated that Brazil had, in 2021, 57 million active volunteers. According to the survey, the time dedicated to help is increasing. While in 2011, the average amount of dedication per person was five hours per month, in 2021 this average has grown to 18 hours per month. The rate is three times higher than a decade ago. According to the analysis, 56% of the adult population says they do or have already done some voluntary activity in their lives. In 2011, this number represented only 25% of the population and, in 2001, 18%.
Another study, this one carried out by Atados, a platform that connects people and organizations for voluntary activities, revealed that the number of Brazilians interested in becoming volunteers in 2021 grew 31% compared to 2020. The fact was noticed by the organization itself, which noted a 15% increase in applications for volunteer activities in 2021 compared to the previous year. The expectation is that the results will grow even more in 2022 and remain upward in the coming years.
Ambassadors of the Flame
The Ambassadors of the Flame project, for example, carried out since 2020 by GABRIEL INSTITUTE to encourage organ donation, it seeks volunteers interested in receiving training to talk to those around them about the importance of organ and tissue donation.
The program serves 12 states in Brazil and intends to soon have representatives in all regions of the country. “These are common people talking to common people too, with accessible and correct language, about the importance of the practice of organ donation”, explains Maria Inês Carvalho, president of the GABRIEL Institute.
Inês says that the project came about on the initiative of her husband, Valdir Carvalho, who had the idea of creating a “pyramid of good”, in which each person who was able to talk about organ donation would bring two more people to build a solid base of this pyramid. “With the death of Valdir, in 2019, I made this project a priority at the Institute and, in 2020, he won the Movimento Bem Maior award”, she recalls. The Movement is a non-profit, non-partisan social organization that aims to strengthen the philanthropic ecosystem in Brazil. “As a result, we received funding for the construction of a virtual platform for a program to stimulate the training of volunteers”.
She also explains that the course offered to interested people is completely free and covers the main points of the organ donation and transplantation process in Brazil. “There are 12 classes and 12 missions that the student needs to complete in order to receive the ‘Ambassador of the Flame’ certification. The program is completely online, but offers constant monitoring of the project team to help with questions that arise throughout the process, ”she says.
The Institute is now in its fourth class and, with the first three, it has trained 59 people in 12 Brazilian states to date, who have already impacted more than 83,000 with the information learned in the course. “In 2023, we have the goal of forming three more groups of 30 students, which would impact thousands of new people. We are also planning an upgrade for the classes that have already graduated, in addition to expanding the existing program”, says Maria.
How to apply?
Interested people can pre-register at this link (https://gabriel.org.br/embaixadoresdachama/login – via QR Code) and wait for the call from the GABRIEL Institute. Currently, there is a queue. “As we get more financial support to pay for the expansion of the program in Brazil, we will expand the classes and, with that, we will train more and more people for the subject”, highlights the president of the Institute.
ambassadors
Vane Lopes is one of the certified ambassadors. She has known the GABRIEL Institute since 2011, due to a chronic kidney disease she had. “Today, having been transplanted, I was able to participate in group 3 of the program. It is an excellent program, with very didactic videos made with simple language and easy to understand. The activities are fun and make a big impact from an informational point of view,” she says.
For Vane, who also acts as coordinator of communication projects at the GABRIEL Institute, talking about organ donation goes beyond her professional tasks. “It’s not just my job, but a life purpose.”
Pedagogue Suelen Freire is also an ambassador and got to know the Gabriel Institute and the volunteer program when she received a double transplant (pancreas and kidney) and felt compelled to contribute to the dissemination of information on the subject. “Fortunately, I spent a short time in line waiting for the organs and I didn’t master the subject enough to answer all the questions that came to me. Then, the opportunity arose to participate in the first group of ambassadors and I applied. The experience was one of the best trainings I’ve had in my life. The course directed me so that I could use my potential in favor of activism”.
Suelen is a teacher and her ability to write texts and communicate led her to work as a volunteer editor for the NGO Sou Doador. “Today, I write and edit texts for blog posts and social networks, in addition to answering questions and directing people in line or recently transplanted who are looking for me”, she says. Suelen also created a brand of t-shirts and other products with the theme of donation allied to humor: Donação Estampada. This year, the brand sponsored the Humor Exhibition on Organ Donation promoted by the GABRIEL Institute.
The ambassador concludes by saying that the greatest expectation she has in relation to Ambassadors of the Flame is that it reaches all people who, like her, understand and experience the importance of organ donation. “Without the necessary information, Dô’s family, as I call my deceased donor, could have refused to donate and I would not be here to tell this story. I needed just one ‘yes’ for my life to be saved, and that ‘yes’ has changed absolutely everyone’s view of donation that knows me. Imagine a country fully equipped with correct information and with people willing to donate?”, adds Suelen.
Today, more than 50,000 people are still in line waiting for an organ transplant in Brazil. Misinformation is still the main reason for this scenario, since 43% of families refuse to donate the organs of their deceased loved ones. “Donation is an act of solidarity that saves lives, so there are no transplants if there is no donor. The main mission of the GABRIEL Institute is to make more people aware of this”, concludes Inês, president of the GABRIEL Institute.
About the GABRIEL Institute
The GABRIEL Institute is a non-profit social organization. Her name is a tribute to Gabrielle de Azevedo Carvalho, who was born with anencephaly (absence of a brain), on May 24, 1998. Gabrielle was the second baby of the couple Maria Inês Toledo de Azevedo Carvalho and Valdir de Carvalho to present the disease. congenital formation. Ten years earlier, they had already lost another daughter to the same problem.
Maria Inês and Valdir chose to maintain Gabrielle’s pregnancy until the end so that, after the baby’s birth and inevitable death, they would donate their organs in an attempt to help children who were waiting for a transplant. However, the donation could not take place due to an omission in the Brazilian law in force at the time, which did not provide for the donation of organs from babies with anencephaly.
The GABRIEL Institute then began work to standardize donations. This was only partially achieved on March 2, 2007, with the Ministry of Health’s ordinance, which still does not fully meet the needs of this type of donation.
Over the years, the GABRIEL Institute has specialized in developing projects to encourage the donation of organs and tissues, as well as the prevention of congenital malformations and the main causes of diseases that lead to transplantation. More information: www.gabriel.org.br
