Best Buddies Brazil

Brazilian society is still assistentialism and does not have the culture of voluntary work or making donations to NGOs, especially those with an international origin, because they believe they are rich and powerful organizations. In reality, this type of behavior greatly complicates my work as a social leader, since Best Buddies International has the mission of raising funds for the cause of Social Inclusion of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) through a global network of volunteers. Anyway, my idea has always been to offer Best Buddies Programs to public schools, which in Brazil are attended by low-income people, to those who live in slums and most of the time depend on government benefits. As inclusive education in Brazil is still in a very slow evolution process, I have no doubt that the Best Buddies Programs could add a lot of value to the development of the cause and help in the fight against exclusion and prejudice of People with IDD who are still the most great barriers from society that exist here, in Brazil.

My name is Roberta Cruz Lima, I'm 50 years old, I have a law degree but I never advocated. I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, which is known for its natural beauty and also for its violence and social inequality that unfortunately only grows over the years, generating more and more poverty, lack of opportunities, prejudice and reinforcing structural racism that exists throughout the country.

The values and the mission of Best Buddies programs, are, in my view, tools that would help us to tackle issues of social exclusion such as those that exist in schools, universities and in the Brazilian labor market. The biggest difference would be being able to disseminate the importance of inclusion.

After 10 years living in London, where I did postgraduate studies in the 3rd sector, I learned to navigate different worlds with a compassionate and curious mentality, which encouraged me to focus exclusively on projects in Brazil with a social impact in order to bring a strategic approach with practical skills for the process of change and transformation.

I am currently leading two volunteer projects that aim to create employment and education opportunities for people with disabilities living in slums.

One billion people, or 15% of the world population, suffer from some form of disability according to the World Health Organization.

Brazil is one of the most populous countries in the world, with a population of 212.56 million people in 2020, due to population rates, there are approximately 16 million people with disabilities in Brazil, 82% of people with disabilities live below the poverty line and the permanent expenses of these families are 40% higher! (Source: UN)

Giving opportunity to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who live in favelas to learn about their skills and abilities, including learning to develop their role as a participatory citizen in an inclusive society, is NOT a favor but a duty of any society. 

0.8% intellectual disability

0.5% of the total population had a intellectual and developmental disabilities since birth,

0.3% acquired it due to illness or accident.

People aged 60 or over showed the highest proportions of
intellectual and developmental disability acquired by illness or accident (0.8%) and just 30.4% attend some rehabilitation service in health. 

Making this project a reality for all favelas in São Paulo, Brazil and Latin America is my purpose and biggest dream! 

My work is innovative because the vast majority of NGOs in Brazil that deal with the subject still work alone. There is no culture of collective work and mainly of collective work carried out by NGOs in Brazil in partnership with international organizations.

The other thing that my work brings about innovation is that we are training social educators who are professionals who work with a specific public who are residents of slums and many of them in a situation of social vulnerability.

The third invoice of my project is that it started voluntarily and I chose to raise funds outside Brazil

Best Buddies is the world’s largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation of the 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). 

We have already impacted more than 1,370,500 people, we have more than 137,000 volunteers participating in our programs and around 1,550 people with IDD employed around the world.

Over the past 10 years of initiatives, we seek to establish clear, far-reaching objectives with the goal of global impact increasing the number of Best Buddies school and community chapters to 7,000, developing 3,800 Jobs for people with IDD, engaging over 1 Million individuals to walk or ride for inclusion to support our mission and create 10 Best Buddies Living residences that will provide a vibrant, integrated living space for people with IDD.

As a result of these ambitious goals, Best Buddies expects to impact over 4 million people — all working collaboratively to help individuals with IDD and Best Buddies Brasil expects to be the first Best Buddies in the world to contribute to all this development in the favelas of Brazil and perhaps in Latin America.