Dear friends, team, investors, advisors and beneficiaries…
With great enthusiasm, I bring you a brief context of the humanitarian work that we have been carrying out together for the past 5 years.
Refúgio is experiencing a very positive phase, and despite the growing challenges we face with migration in Brazil and around the world, we are certain that we are building a solid foundation for an organization that will continue to be active beyond our lifetimes.
Our work is to support refugees arriving in Brazil and we do this through two fronts:
1 – Reception: individuals and legal entities take on the mission of reintegrating one or more families into society. Everything revolves around employment and the mission is accomplished when they have a home, a job and school for their children – what we call socio-economic reintegration. Each family we welcome is supported by our team until they are 100% independent.
2 – Education: we offer Portuguese courses, cultural education and professional education for families arriving in the country (pre-reception) and university scholarships for hosted families (post-reception).
2024 was a year of excellent results for the Operation, and of growth in Fundraising. We welcomed 900 people (442 families), generating 537 jobs, and Escola Refúgio issued 1.409 certifications to 745 students, with a total operational cost of R$2.056.842,98.
Since 2019, 5.103 people have been welcomed in 266 cities, and 3.773 students have graduated – a historic achievement.
The hiring of CEO Ricardo Siqueira was an important milestone in the development of our leadership team. Ricardo was part of the founding of Refúgio and after 5 years on the Board, he took over the leadership of our operations. Still on the subject of people, another important move was the transfer of our Operations Manager, Leonardo Tavares, from Boa Vista (RR) to Belo Horizonte (MG). We are implementing the new headquarters of Refúgio in BH, where most of our donors, hosts and networking force are located.
So far, we have raised R$9.661.330,00. Today, the most important financing strategy, and the basis of our work, are Angel Investors, a group of 13 individuals and legal entities who have committed to donating amounts above R$120.000,00 per year, for a minimum of 3 years, totaling an annual inflow of R$1.560.000,00 – our goal is to reach 20 Angels this year. The Donor Program (monthly donors of any amount), one-off donations, special campaigns, public notices and consulting services complement the budget. The estimated cost for 2025 is R$2.559.070,69.
The means of financing work in the third sector are archaic and the dependence on donations makes the fight for human rights and environmental protection slow and unsustainable. The greatest evidence of this is the portrait of the unequal society in which we live. A true revolution in the modus operandi of the sector is necessary, and our actions should not be restricted to humanitarian impact, but also to contributing to the creation of more financially sustainable and intelligent ways of carrying out this work.
Fundraising is the biggest pain point for Refúgio and all social organizations. We are studying in depth new ways of generating revenue, especially Social Business methodologies (always non-profit), with the development of products and services.
I have always believed that the refugee workforce is the answer to the migration challenge itself. In this sense, two important work fronts are underway:
1 – We are maturing our employability processes, specializing more and more in the allocation of qualified labor. With this, we launched the Recomeço Consulting, an initiative to help companies find talent, reduce turnover and achieve their ESG goals.
2 – We seek to define a product and a scalable production line of necessary consumer goods, which will meet market demands and provide financial feedback for humanitarian work – still in research phase.
When we started our work in 2019, 1.500 people were entering Brazil every day through the border with Venezuela, and most of our efforts so far have been to serve this public as efficiently as we could. Today, the average number of people entering, still high, is 350 people per day. Although there is no end in sight for this crisis (quite the opposite), we understand the need to expand the scope of our work to other nationalities. We have already started mapping other
communities: Haitians, Syrians, Afghans, Congolese and others, to include them in our Reception and Education programs. As we mature our work on the border with Venezuela, in 2025 we will begin formal work with other nationalities from the central office in Belo Horizonte.
Dear friends, this is just the beginning of a long journey that begins in Brazil and spreads throughout the world, and if God allows it, one day we will fulfill the final mission of closing our doors, making ourselves unnecessary.
The regeneration of planet Earth is possible. The construction of a Culture of Peace is possible. And the Refuge is the contribution of a people who, in the midst of so many adversities, continue to believe and act.
Let us move forward with confidence, doing the best work of our lives.
With love,
Fernando Rangel
CEO
