The Executive Board of Integrated Planning (DEPI) was created in 2017 to, among other objectives, prospect scenarios on how the university will operate in the long term in line with the society that finances it. It was seeking to fulfill this purpose that DEPI created the Unicamp Solidária-Basic Baskets Campaign, whose official launch took place this Wednesday morning (3/6), in a videoconference with the presence of the rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, the mayor of Campinas, Jonas Donizette, the superintendent of Itaú Social, Ângela Dannemann, the president of the Wernher von Braun Advanced Research Center, Dario Thober, and the Municipal Secretary of Social Assistance, Persons with Disabilities and Human Rights of the City of Campinas (SMASDH), Eliane Jocelaine Pereira.
“We believe that Unicamp has an important social function and it was in this sense that DEPI engaged in this Campaign, to help the city of Campinas in this critical moment we are facing”, stated the director of DEPI, Marco Aurelio Pinheiro Lima. The objective of the Unicamp Solidária-Cestas Básicas Campaign is to help the most vulnerable population in the city of Campinas by donating food and hygiene and cleaning products. According to the secretary of social assistance, Eliane Pereira, due to the pandemic, the number of families with difficulties in purchasing food and cleaning products has increased significantly. “I believe that this partnership between the university, the city hall and these private actors is historic for our city. Both in terms of strengthening City Hall’s actions in serving the community, and in terms of building a rich and productive dialogue between different institutions,” she said.
The launch of the Campaign takes place on the same day that Itaú Social officially donates a total of R$1,2 million. The resources will reach the Campaign through three deposits of R$400, the first of which will be made in the next few days. With this amount it will be possible to serve around 8 thousand families per month. Considering the number of families already registered with the Social Assistance Secretariat, 26 thousand families, these baskets serve 30% of all those identified as vulnerable. “Only with interinstitutional partnerships like this will we be able to overcome this serious health crisis,” said Ângela Dannemann, superintendent of Itaú Social. “The model of this Campaign, which seeks to strengthen and expand ongoing actions, could be a model for our projects at Fundação Itaú Social”, she added.
With the money raised, the Unicamp Development Foundation (Funcamp) buys baskets. They are delivered directly to the Campinas Food Bank, which forwards them to institutions previously registered with the Municipal Secretary of Social Assistance. Funcamp's director of institutional relations, Renato Falcão, highlighted that all information about the campaign is available on the Campaign page, including amounts raised, number of baskets purchased and delivered. “We made a point of providing this transparency from the beginning of this initiative. Furthermore, anyone can help, as there is no minimum amount that can be donated,” he explained.
Science and solidarity – Another partner in the project is the Wernher von Braun Advanced Research Center. Based in Campinas, the company develops technological solutions for public and private institutions, including in the area of Internet of Things, identification and automatic transactions, such as the technology used in Nonstop. O Von Braun Labs created an application “Viva Vida” that will be used by the Campinas Social Assistance Secretariat to help with the registration of families in vulnerable situations. By downloading the “Viva Vida” application, the user can register to apply to receive basic food baskets from the Unicamp Solidária Campaign.
As the director of Von Braun Labs, Dario Thober, said, the application is an integration tool between those who want to donate, the city hall and those who need help. By accessing the application on their cell phone, the person can make a donation via the Funcamp website. People who need help can register on the app. This information will feed into the City Hall database.” “Our objective is, based on the collection of this data, to issue electronic vouchers to institutions already registered with the Social Assistance Secretariat to distribute to families and, in the future, to commercial establishments in specific areas of the city”, explained Thober, who is a former student at Unicamp.
The development of the application has the support of Unicamp's Georeferencing Coordination, linked to DEPI. The team is creating a georeferenced map (web map) to assist the Social Assistance Secretariat in identifying and registering the population and these establishments, in addition to identifying, for each family, the closest establishments, where they can exchange electronic vouchers for products . “These maps will help in the process of tracking donations, confirming that they reached their destination, that is, to the people who really need them”, added Thober.
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In this sense, the Unicamp Solidarity Campaign is a good example of an intelligent and effective response, through the articulation of several actors: the public university, the City Hall, the private sector - very diverse - and the common citizen.
Among the private actors who joined the Campaign are the company JUNI, specialized in optimizing digital environments. The company's team dedicated 40 hours of work on the Campaign website, ensuring a 7% growth in the number of clicks for donations, according to Gabriel Machado, head of JUNI's operation.
On another front, it happens through a partnership with the COMEMOS Project, which sells gastronomic kits and uses the profits to purchase basic food baskets. The kits bring together dishes and products from commercial partners. Residents of the São Paulo and Campinas regions can order them through website from the project. “It has been very satisfying to see this effort from so many people and institutions to help those in need at this time,” said COMEMOS project coordinator, Yoav Nevo.
For the mayor of Campinas, Jonas Donizette, the partnership with Unicamp demonstrates the importance of joining forces to face a crisis that affects everyone, but which is more serious for the most vulnerable social groups. “Campinas has a population with high purchasing power, with a significant middle class, but we also have very poor people who need help. A Campaign like this strengthens the actions we have adopted at City Hall since the beginning of the pandemic”, said the mayor.
Closing the video conference to launch the Campaign, the rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, recalled that the pandemic has increased the number of people having difficulty purchasing food and hygiene products. “A large number of people had a sharp drop in income or were left with no income at all,” he pointed out. He thanked all partners in the Campaign and reinforced the importance of solidarity in times of crisis. “I believe that this pandemic has awakened a strong volunteer movement in our culture, something that is here to stay”, he concluded.
See here to donate to the Unicamp Solidarity-Basic Baskets Campaign.
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