Foundation Board of Trustees visits Bahia’s Baixo Sul

Members of the Council and of Novonor S.A. met young people and families benefited by the institution’s Social Program

May 2nd and 3rd were days of thinking together about how to drive social transformation. This is because the Norberto Odebrecht Foundation (FNO) received, during the period, the visit of its Board of Trustees and guests from the Novonor Group to the Southern Bahia Lowlands, where it applies its Social Program, the PDCIS. The meeting allowed participants to get to know young people, farmers, and families impacted by the Program up close, and to connect with the Foundation’s partner institutions. Later, already in Salvador, the first annual meeting of the Council was held, in which all the results achieved by the PDCIS in 2021 were presented, and the work being done to promote sustainable territorial development in 2022 was debated.

Councilors talk to young people benefited by the Foundation’s Social Program

The first moment of the meeting took place at the Presidente Tancredo Neves Rural Family House (CFR-PTN), one of the Foundation’s partner rural schools in the execution of the PDCIS. There were students, teachers, and monitors from the institution – as well as the students and teachers from the other two Casas Familiares from the South Bass of Bahia, the Casa Familiar Rural de Igrapiúna (CFR-I) and the Casa Familiar Agroflorestal (CFAF). Welcomed to the sound of the violin played by Daniel Wilk, a CFAF student, the counselors participated in a chat with the young people and were able to learn more about their routines, projects, and dreams. In addition, they got to know products developed in the region in a small fair conceived by the students.

For Daniel Villar, member of the Board of Directors of Novonor S.A. and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the FNO, one of the highlights of the conversation was witnessing the power of the legacy of Norberto Odebrecht, founder of the Novonor Group and the Foundation, in the lives of the young people trained by the Family Homes. “Dr. Norberto’s presence is very much felt here. In the practice of education for and through work and in the way we see TEO[a business philosophy created by him] being used in the formation of people, so that people can be the protagonist of their own destiny,” he says.

Talking with farmers

Board members Nir Lander (Ocyan) and Ludmila Lavigne (OEC) in connection with farmer Alisson Costa

After the agenda at the CFR-PTN, the counselors were able to visit the property of an egress of the House: Benivaldo dos Santos, 34, who lives in the community of Ouro Preto and works in an agricultural condominium formed together with colleagues from his time in the Family House. Today, he is a reference as a farmer for the region. “The knowledge I had at the CFR-PTN gave me that security of wanting to invest in new results, new perspectives, new productivity. This confidence comes from knowledge,” he told those present. “Before my training, I was surviving. Now I’ve come to live,” he said.

In the view of Maurício Odebrecht, the controlling shareholder’s representative on Novonor’s Board of Directors, the possibility of meeting the families benefited by the PDCIS in person had a great impact. “We visited several environments, and in all of them we perceived the legacy of the founder[of the Novonor Group and Foundation, Norberto Odebrecht],” he said, who is the businessman’s grandson. “So we are reestablishing something very important for us, which is the Pedagogy of Presence, the contact with people, because nothing is more important than connection. This was the great achievement of our meeting,” he added.

Ludmila Lavigne, responsible for People and Planning at the OEC and a member of the Foundation’s Board, had already visited the region in previous years and noticed the strengthening of the Social Program. “It was very gratifying to see the institutional maturity of the work developed and how well these communities welcome the knowledge transmitted, become more empowered,” she says. “And I see an opportunity for all Novonor Group Businesses to learn about this already systematized FNO social technology. They can observe how the PDCIS works and connect it to their own relationships with the communities,” she says.

The meeting in Baixo Sul da Bahia preceded the 1st Meeting of the Board of Trustees in 2022

Another exchange with rural producers took place at the end of the day, in Serra da Papuã, located in the municipality of Ibirapitanga (BA) and home to the headquarters of the Land Conservation Organization (OCT), another PDCIS partner institution. There, the guests watched a presentation by the OCT about its lines of action, from the standpoint of productive and environmental conservation. Farmer beneficiaries were also present, and were able to tell, first hand, the impacts that OCT’s support has generated in their lives. Illustrating their talk, a photo exhibit on the site showed them on their farms and with the products of their harvest.

Governance

According to Fabio Wanderley, superintendent of the Norberto Odebrecht Foundation, the meeting further strengthened the relationship with the Board, institutions and beneficiaries, allowing the FNO to reinforce its main objective of putting into practice actions that generate a real impact on people’s lives. “Being able to demonstrate once again, live and in color, that the transformation generated by our Social Program is always a rewarding experience. It is a space for us to gather contributions and improve our performance. With the support of our board members, we know we are on the right track, directed towards taking this social technology, of proven impacts, to more regions,” he says.