Improve the quality of life of people in need using entrepreneurship as a lever. This is the motto of Enactus Unicamp, an international non-profit organization that operates in 36 countries and 1.730 universities. This work, which at Unicamp is orchestrated by students sensitive to the needy population, adds to that of 72 thousand student volunteers around the world.
Founded in 2013 by the Núcleo das Empresas Juniores, Enactus Unicamp currently has three very relevant social projects underway in the Campinas community: the Madrepérola, Pureco and 14 Bis projects. Social actions are the flagship of the initiative, says Renê Grottoli Siqueira, the new president of Enactus Unicamp. He took office on Wednesday night (23) in the main hall of the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA). His mandate will be one year and he will share activities with the executive, HR, marketing, projects and administrative directors.
The student comments that the Madrepérola project takes place in a community in Parque Itajaí that meets every two weeks at Cecompi (Community Center for Children in Parque Itajaí and Region). The work is aimed at unemployed women, through their training. “We are setting up a business model with them in the sewing area”, he informs. The idea is to manufacture underwear, bikinis and gym clothes to be placed on the market.
Twenty women participate in this project and, thanks to a partnership with Vezo (Fashion Institute, Campinas), 15 of them will take a basic sewing course lasting four months. They must learn to operate a production line, design, use different machines and their possible applications. “Different from what social assistance preaches, we want to empower women, creating skills in the community itself”, reveals Renê. “In general, when they manage to leverage the business on their own, it is time for Enactus to look for another community to develop new projects.”
A second front of this project is the development of more anatomical and more comfortable bras for women who have had their breasts removed due to cancer, those who have undergone mastectomies. The aim is to take advantage of the sewing training of Madrepérola women. “This way, these women will benefit and will be able to offer a more attractive and accessible product,” she says. "Dr. Cássio Cardoso Filho, a breast specialist at Caism and professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Unicamp, is helping us with this, in addition to the Women's Hospital."
Another ongoing project of the group is Pureco, developed together with the Campo dos Amarais community, which covers residents of Jardim Santa Mônica and Jardim São Marcos aged between 30 and 50 years. The work is involving unemployed women who worked as domestic workers. Enactus is developing the Pureco app, more or less along the lines of Uber. The application recruits registered women to clean the homes of Unicamp students in the Barão Geraldo region.
This application has some fields to be filled in, such as the day, cleaning time, the rooms that need to be cleaned, whether clothes or dishes need to be washed, among others. Pureco is accessed by women from their cell phones. The implementation of this application is expected to take place by the beginning of next year. It had the support of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Unicamp Computing Institute. “We are not outsourcing this activity. We will show these women how to use it, because the application will be theirs”, he guarantees.
Another project is 14 Bis, carried out at Cooperativa Santo Expedito, in Vila Castelo Branco. Its objective is to give a voice to recyclable collector cooperatives to improve working conditions and the quality of life of their members, generating income, in addition to reducing environmental damage due to disposal.
Currently, a new project is being formatted by the Enactus team. It will focus on sustainability, like the 14 Bis project, which involves a cooperative of recyclable collectors in Vila Castelo Branco. “We are prospecting a community close to Unicamp to learn about their demands, but we are focusing on sustainability. We must apply a project methodology based on the book PMBok, a tool considered ideal for social projects”, he explains.
Renê appeals: “for other students to join our team and impact people’s lives. This is a unique opportunity that makes us leave the Unicamp bubble to seek new horizons. When we leave our focus and look at other people, we are even happier”, highlights Renê, who is from Pederneiras, loves the automotive sector, has worked in the industrial sector, but what he really fell in love with was the social activities he discovered working in Enactus.
According to Renê, there will be many challenges that Enactus will face, including greater publicity of its actions, to gain even more support and attract more people to work on this cause. “The dream is to change people’s lives for the better,” she emphasizes.
