During the first days of January 2018, several cities in Brazil’s state of Santa Catarina were hit by really heavy rains that gave rise to numerous floodings. This caused great material losses to families that live in the most vulnerable areas. After the first disastrous news started to spread in social media and local journals, my apprenticeship, the Instituto Comunitário Grande Florianópolis – ICOM started the Fundo Comunitário de Reconstrução SC, a fundraising campaign aiming to provide financial assistance to the low-income families that were most affected. In total, the campaign received R$253,300 (around 76,000 USD) in three weeks. The donations came from a number of local companies and individual donors.
On March 21st, ICOM had an event with all the partners that supported the initiative and delivered vouchers of R$4,000 to 55 families selected among the most affected by Florianópolis’ City Hall. Families can only use these funds to purchase furniture and home appliances.
ICOM acts as a community foundation, supporting companies and individuals to make social investments and donations with high social impact. At the same time, it helps civil society organizations to have a more efficient management and to serve as channels for citizen participation to improve the quality of life in Grande Florianópolis and Santa Catarina.
I feel really honored to have worked at ICOM over the last seven months and thank them for their incomparable guidance.
