In October, we are celebrating 15 years of Instituto C (IC). When we look back, we are proud of much of what we have built in partnership with many people and organizations. One of these achievements is, without a doubt, our own methodology, designed to meet the specific needs of the families who come through our hubs.

That is because, to guarantee access to rights for families with children and adolescents at social risk, IC needs to offer systematic care, built on a well-planned methodological foundation and delivered by a qualified team that takes into account the conditions and needs of each territory where it works. After all, to achieve its intended impact, any social action must be accompanied by good organization and planning.

What does methodology mean?

Methodology is the combination of methods and paths needed to achieve a goal. In academic research, for example, methodology refers to everything the researcher had to do to reach the results (such as interviews, questionnaires and data analysis).

In our context, it is simply the way we carry out our work. In other words, it is the set of processes, techniques and tools we use every day to achieve the social impact we seek. Some examples that are part of a third-sector organization’s methodology are:

• • Which days it carries out its routine activities;
  • How it calculates the indicators of its work;
  • For how long it supports each person served.

The origins of IC’s methodology

Fifteen years ago, Instituto C was born as the São Paulo unit of Instituto Dara (an organization from Rio de Janeiro that, at the time, was called Associação Saúde Criança, ASC). For this reason, our methodology was the same one Dara had built to serve families in the other states where it operated: the Family Action Plan (PAF)*. This plan was built together with each family, so that the child with a diagnosis could overcome immediate difficulties and develop in the medium and long term.

*Instituto Dara’s methodology has since evolved and is now called the Dara Method.

Round of services at Instituto C’s first headquarters, in 2012

Many elements of our methodology were therefore different from what we have today. For example:

• Our services were aimed at families with children with serious or rare diagnoses, in situations of social risk.
• These families were referred by partner hospitals, especially Santa Casa, near our headquarters.
• Volunteers played a very strong role in providing services to families.
• Each day, there were two group sessions (one for the morning families and another for those who came in the afternoon). Afterwards, each family sat down at each of the service areas and was required to spend 15 minutes at each table. At the end, they collected benefits (such as a food basket) and left, returning the following month.

What began as support for families facing a child’s or adolescent’s illness came to include other dimensions of family life, such as income generation, early childhood development, education, strengthening bonds and access to rights,” says Nayara Oliveira, Institutional Development Coordinator at Instituto C.

Methodological changes

The multidisciplinary and holistic care for the families who come to us, which already existed back then, remains alive today. But over the years, our methods have changed to respond to emerging needs.

The technical team, for example, began to point out that the length of the sessions was no longer enough to welcome families and give them the guidance they needed. Volunteer-based services also proved unsustainable in the long term, requiring more professionals to be hired for the technical team. The requirement to serve children with complex diagnoses was also reconsidered, and today we also welcome families with children who have no diagnosis.

Another change involved welcoming new families. At a certain point, IC realized that we could receive families beyond referrals from partner hospitals, for example through word of mouth. The way we serve families also changed, with the aim of providing more quality time, continuous follow-up, qualified listening and autonomy for each of them.

Individual sessions at Instituto C’s current headquarters

A methodology focused on care

Today, Instituto C has its own family support methodology, built on the experience of these 15 years and grounded in the National Social Assistance Policy and the National Care Policy, which was published in 2024 and reinforced the work we were already doing.

To fulfill our mission of ensuring the full development of children at social risk, we identified caring for those who care for them as our main method — and this is one of the most distinctive features of our methodology. We seek to strengthen families (often women overburdened by the invisible work of care), expanding access to rights and holding the State co-responsible for the care of these children.

What is invisible care work?

For each person to work and live a dignified life, someone needs to care for them. This care can be paid and come from companies and professionals (such as doctors, cooks and nurses), but it also happens unpaid at home. Society, in general, holds women responsible for these tasks: cleaning the house, cooking, caring for sick relatives, doing the laundry, and so on. All this work happens every day, but it is not very recognized. When, for example, someone looks at a renowned company director, few people ask: “Who cares for this professional, so that he could get where he is?”

And how do we expand access to rights? When we begin supporting a family, we first understand their needs and then, together with them, seek the necessary paths across different government departments, bringing together in one place information about the various public policies these people are entitled to. This way, families are able to access places in daycare, housing rights, health services and more. This is because, to reduce economic inequalities, we understand that we must consider every aspect of the lives of people living in poverty, not just their income.

How does it work in practice?

Many families come on their own, through recommendations from other families or through referrals from network services, such as CRAS, UBS, schools and other partners. To take part, a family just needs to have at least one child or adolescent, be in a situation of social vulnerability and be interested in the project.

As soon as they arrive at IC, families go through screening, in which a socioeconomic analysis of their vulnerabilities is carried out. Each family is then referred either to the welcome group or to our waiting list.

A turning point in our methodology came when we understood that the key to offering holistic family support was to assign each family a reference professional from our team. This strategy emerged as we refined our methodology to replicate it in a partnership with Instituto Alimentando o Bem (IAB; learn more at the end of this article). This professional (whether a social worker, psychologist, nutritionist or educator) is responsible for following the family’s various needs, seeing it as a whole. Each family may go through different areas in a complementary way, but it is their reference professional who follows them closely and builds, together with them, the Individual Care Plan (PIA, its acronym in Portuguese).

This plan defines which areas of expertise will support the family (social work, psychology, nutrition, pedagogy or productive inclusion) and how often. The PIA is reviewed every three months, always in partnership with the family, to strengthen their role as protagonists.

Since bonds have always been a priority for IC, we extended the length of individual and group sessions and, in addition, adopted comprehensive follow-up by reference professionals,” highlights Nayara.

Closing group at the North Zone Hub in the city of São Paulo

In addition to individual sessions, families take part in workshops and conversation circles, as we have done since the beginning, and, at some hubs, children and adolescents have group activities of their own. Benefits such as food baskets are still provided to families who need this support.

Today we offer welcoming and listening attentive to these families’ needs, vulnerabilities and strengths, to co-create strategies for confronting and breaking cycles of social exclusion,” explains Nayara.

Every week, the team meets to discuss cases and think of new strategies, always in coordination with the territory’s service network. Another important tool is our own monitoring system, where each family’s entire journey at Instituto C is recorded. It is there that we carry out screening, build the PIA and record the progress of each session, group meetings, home visits and referrals to the network.

With this information gathered in one place, the reference professional and the other areas can follow each family’s journey together. The system also stores the indicators assessed by the team, such as self-esteem, autonomy and income, which help us understand families’ achievements and adjust care whenever necessary.

Expanding our methodology

In recent years, Instituto C’s expansion has allowed us to take our methodology beyond our headquarters in the city center, where it was first developed. We created other service hubs and learned to adapt the methodology to meet the specific needs of each territory. At the North Zone Hub in São Paulo (created in 2022), our routine includes vocational courses offered by local partners, which complement our services. At the Taubaté Hub (2025), we do not have our own space for group sessions: they take place at our partners’ units. At the Porto Alegre Hub (2025), we are located within a community space funded by Instituto Mari Johannpeter (IMJ), and our services complement IMJ’s home renovation work, as well as including home visits to every family.

Between 2023 and 2026, we established a partnership that allowed us to replicate our methodology beyond our service hubs. Instituto Alimentando o Bem works on the territorial development of mangrove communities in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo state. It began its activities in 2020 with an emergency response in the Perequê neighborhood during the pandemic, distributing meals and other donations to residents of stilt houses affected by flooding. However, the organization soon realized that the service it could offer was not complete. It began offering a wider variety of services, until it met Instituto C and realized that our methodology’s holistic care would be essential for these families’ full development.

Thus, what began as guidance offered by Instituto C to IAB soon became a true experience of replicating our methodology. Alimentando o Bem initially hired a social worker to listen to families and get to know the territory and its needs, and soon complemented social work services with psychology and pedagogy, launching the Rede Cidadã (Citizen Network) program.

Instituto Alimentando o Bem, in Guarujá (SP)

As soon as the partnership began, the two institutes realized that some adaptations to the methodology would be needed for it to work effectively in Guarujá. There, families from different projects (some with no planned end to their cycle) began taking part in Rede Cidadã. And since they had no expected date for leaving the Institute’s services, these cases made it harder to interpret the indicators collected by the system. For this and other reasons, IC developed a new version of the system so that it could efficiently monitor the services in Guarujá. Another relevant difference was that Alimentando o Bem was open to all families in the region (especially women), not only those with children and adolescents.

The experience in Guarujá was a great learning experience for Instituto C. By adapting our methodology to another territory, we also started to look more closely at our own way of doing things,” says Nayara. “The reference professional is a good example. There, each family had a professional who followed its entire journey, and I soon realized that this approach would also strengthen bonds and continuity of care for families in São Paulo. That’s how we brought this practice to our hubs.”

Rede Cidadã left important results for Alimentando o Bem. It was through the program that the Institute recognized itself as a basic social protection organization and obtained municipal and, later, state social assistance certification. It began taking part in network meetings, hosted meetings of the Municipal Social Assistance Council and, since early 2025, has hosted the CRAS once a week at its facilities, since the nearest center is far from the community. Between 2023 and 2025, the indicators tracked in the system showed an increase in families’ access to social assistance services and the health network.

Instituto C also learned a great deal from this experience. In fact, it was from it that we created a new area of work dedicated to multiplying our methodology and training partner organizations.

Each territory has its own needs, and Guarujá showed us that taking our methodology to other places requires listening and adaptation. Today, before starting a new partnership, we carry out a socio-territorial assessment and seek to understand what forms the foundation of our work and what can change in the way we do it. That way, we can share what we’ve learned and ensure that more families, in different territories, receive holistic, high-quality care,” adds Nayara.

Do you remember the last time you had free time in your schedule, with nothing to do?

For many people, work takes up most of their time, demanding almost total mental and emotional effort. The overload of roles, inside and outside the home, piles up in their routine, especially in the lives of specific groups in society, such as single mothers living on the peripheries.

According to 2022 data from IBGE’s Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), women spend almost ten more hours per week than men on household chores: 21.3 hours for women and 11.7 hours for men. An analysis by Ipea based on the same microdata shows that the number of hours spent on domestic work can increase by up to ten hours for poorer women, with an even greater variation when we consider these women’s race.

We can’t leave this out, because those who are rich have far more resources. There’s no way to compare, for example, a celebrity who has more than one nanny at home with the women supported by Instituto C, who often have no support network and therefore few opportunities to rest,” notes Camila Alves, a psychologist on the technical team at IC’s Porto Alegre Hub.

This accumulation of roles adds to caring for children, relatives and the other responsibilities of adult life, a task society keeps placing on women, causing their minds to enter a constant state of alert. In addition, because of the increasingly productivity-driven logic that persists in society, there is a feeling of guilt when doing nothing. “I notice that, especially for people from lower-income backgrounds, there’s this guilt about idleness, you know? As if the person could be doing something productive that would bring in money,” the psychologist comments.

Rest is a basic right

It is no coincidence that Brazil is the fifth most stressed country in the world, according to the 2025 Health Service Report by Ipsos. In the survey, 70% of Brazilians reported having felt so stressed in the previous year that they were unable (once or several times) to cope with their responsibilities. In countries such as Japan, at the bottom of the ranking, this percentage drops to 38%.

From a physiological point of view, the solution to accumulated stress should be simple: a person just needs to rest, finding pleasant pastimes for the mind and relaxing the body. This is a basic right, even provided for by law in our country. In Articles 6 and 7, the Federal Constitution clearly states that every Brazilian has the right to leisure and, if employed, must have weekly time off to rest.

According to the rules of labor law, employment must not cause workers existential harm, that is, harm that affects their social and family life and their leisure time. Precisely for this reason, in May, an update to Regulatory Standard No. 1 (NR-1) — which sets out workplace safety guidelines in Brazil — added psychosocial risks as an occupational risk subject to inspection. In other words, guaranteeing rest is no longer a courtesy from the company; it has become a legal obligation.

The importance of self-care and mental health

But in practice, we know this is not how things happen, and even unemployed people, when they lack a support network, become so overburdened that they go into autopilot, leaving any self-care practices behind. This is an alarming feature of our society that deserves everyone’s attention. We need to demand that governments and employers provide basic conditions for rest and leisure for everyone, because this is a public health issue.

That is what Henrique Akiba, a psychologist with a PhD in neuroscience from USP and a consultant at Instituto Ame Sua Mente, advocates. The institute focuses on promoting a culture of mental health care, with education as its strategic pillar: training teachers so that Brazilian children grow up aware of their responsibility for the health of their own minds. According to the Institute, Brazil needs to find ways to prioritize mental health in every sphere, by raising awareness in society and building cross-cutting public policies.

Resting the mind shouldn’t be just a luxury. Just as these mothers commit to caring for their children, we need to understand that the responsibility for self-care is just as important as caring for the family,” warns Henrique.

Unfortunately, the way society is organized takes rest out of the position of a basic right and turns it into a privilege. In IC’s sessions, Camila says it is very common to meet mothers who barely know what it is like to have a light routine. “Even when we ask a woman whether she has these moments of rest, there’s that laugh, as if to say: ‘Oh, you’re talking about something that’s impossible for me.’ That’s because the lack of a support network and of a slightly more stable financial situation rules out the possibility of rest.”

What happens to a body that doesn’t rest?

When we don’t rest properly, our mind holds on to accumulated stress, like smoke building up inside a broken-down car. And since our body is a single whole, this ends up affecting us entirely, bringing pain, skin irritation, and cognitive, behavioral and socioemotional difficulties. Not to mention, of course, a series of mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety disorders and burnout. “The person starts having difficulty making decisions and regulating their emotions,” adds Henrique.

At some point, the bill comes due, because there’s no way around it, right? We’re not machines. The body keeps sending signals that it needs to de-stress, because it’s much harder to rest the mind than the rest of the body. Because even when you lie down, your mind keeps working,” says the Instituto C psychologist.

Make time for leisure, even if brief

According to Henrique, there are differences between more passive moments of rest, such as watching TV or scrolling on your phone, and pleasurable activities that exercise the mind and body. And both are very important! “Sometimes lying down isn’t enough to recover from more severe exhaustion,” he says. Leisure, then, emerges as a very rich way of caring for the mind and reducing stress levels. You can:

• Do simple physical activities, such as walking for a few minutes or taking the stairs;
• Read a book;
• Do word searches or another hands-on activity;
• Chat with your neighbors;
• Take part in communities every week, whether religious or not;
• Take three-minute breaks throughout the day to close your eyes and breathe;
• Take a slightly longer shower;
• Put lotion on your body;
• Eat a full meal sitting down, chewing properly.

These are some of the possible ways to bring pleasure into life, even amid so many demands. After all, we cannot allow rest to be a privilege guaranteed only to the wealthiest.

We know that overload is a reality and that there’s often no support network. But what can be done within the routine to bring in a little more rest and avoid this collapse?” reflects Camila.

For more than thirty years, July 25 has carried an important meaning: it is the International Day of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women. The date was created in 1992, when Black women from different countries gathered in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, for the 1st Meeting of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women.

The mobilization gave rise to the Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women, created as a space for political coordination, reflection, exchange and for denouncing the inequalities produced by racism and sexism. It was in this same context that the Network established July 25 as a date to recognize the existence, struggles and contributions of Black women across the continent. In 2024, the UN made the date official as the International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent.

Did you know?

Since 2013, this month has been called Julho das Pretas (Black Women’s July) in Brazil. The movement was created by Instituto Odara in Bahia and grows larger every year. To learn more, read our blog post by clicking here.

A right to self-esteem historically denied

The barriers Black women face in Brazil in having their rights guaranteed are not new. Since the first centuries of colonization, Europeans deprived people from many African peoples of recognizing themselves as human beings, enslaving them and thereby undermining their self-esteem. “Esteem” was never for oneself, but always directed toward white masters.

From the time of the slave ships, society sought in different ways to undermine Black people’s self-esteem; after all, their self-worth would pose a threat to a system based on their domination. African faith, culture, beauty, customs and languages were condemned in order to exalt what came from Europe. Self-esteem was turned into a white feeling.

Even after abolition, Brazil’s social structure continued to greatly hinder the self-confidence of these populations. If someone does not even have the right to housing, healthy food and decent work, how will they find favorable conditions to reflect on themselves and see their own strengths?

And now, centuries later, it is still the State’s obligation to restore all the rights that were taken from these people. Among them, the right to self-esteem.

Here at Instituto C, we understand that strengthening self-esteem is an essential step toward the autonomy of each family we serve. We also understand that this process can be even more challenging for Black people, given historical injustices whose effects remain present in a society still marked by racism.

These consequences are still often ignored, while the violations produced by enslavement and centuries of exclusion have not yet been fully redressed. That is why this reflection is especially relevant to our work, since Black women make up the majority of the people we support.

What is self-esteem?

According to the Michaelis dictionary, self-esteem is “the feeling of personal satisfaction and contentment experienced by an individual who knows their true qualities, abilities and potential (…)”. In other words, it is the quality of someone who values themselves and is satisfied with who they are.

According to Noaly Avenoso, a psychologist on Instituto C’s technical team, self-esteem encompasses everything, from social relationships to the way a person feels about themselves. “It doesn’t only involve the insecurities and social pressures everyone has, especially us women. It goes beyond that: it involves care and self-care.”

Self-esteem goes far beyond self-image. It’s not about thinking you’re pretty or ugly. Working mostly with women, I see this difficulty a lot, for example, in recognizing what they’re capable of doing. Especially among Black women, who learned from an early age to just get on with life,” explains Suellen Claudino, a psychologist on IC’s technical team.

There are, therefore, countless ways for someone to strengthen their self-esteem. It can be by seeing the beauty in one’s own body, but also by recognizing one’s own humanity. “The right to be tired is a way of strengthening self-esteem,” says Noaly. This is because when a Black mother from the periphery says she can’t handle everything, she goes against the superhuman image society builds of this “warrior, unbeatable” woman.

Twenty or thirty years ago, if you had kinky hair, you had ‘bad hair.’ Your obligation was to straighten it. You were only beautiful if you were white. So it’s not that a Black mother didn’t teach her Black daughter to think she was beautiful. It’s that this Black mother didn’t have that resource. She learned from her ancestors: ‘If your hair is kinky, iron it,’” says Suellen.

Self-esteem at work

Another environment in which self-esteem can be developed is work, by recognizing the impact and quality of the service provided. That is what happened to Cristiana, 52, who is supported at IC’s North Zone Hub in São Paulo. Cris works as a day cleaner and housekeeper and says that, for a long time, she did not give due value to what she did. Today, she also realizes how many times she suffered racism in the homes where she worked.

In one of them, she spent six years being mistreated every week and hearing racist insults — she was even unfairly accused of stealing a pair of earrings. “Every Thursday I’d get a stomachache, hives, everything. Until one day I said: ‘No, that’s enough,’” she says.

Today, Cris has a greater awareness of the well-being that day cleaners and housekeepers bring to people’s lives. She realized that she is a service provider and that the families she works for are her clients. So she organized her schedule, made a price list and no longer accepts having her work undervalued.

My rate for a regular day of cleaning is one price, and for a deep clean [heavier work] it’s another. And I don’t lower my price: if the person can’t pay what I’m asking, they’ll find another professional. I used to negotiate my work, but I learned this recently: to value myself,” she says proudly.

Three stories about self-esteem

At our hubs, many families arrive with new stories and challenges of their own. Almost always, our technical team’s work involves supporting the women who represent their families in strengthening their self-esteem in different ways and providing a space for exchange among them, so they can share and identify with one another’s experiences. Here we have gathered a collection of stories in which we were able to closely follow Black women building their self-confidence.

Everything is a social construction, and the collective is an answer for strengthening self-esteem. So in our groups, they grow much stronger, because they share stories, with professional guidance, and leave here as friends,” says Noaly.

1) Life after a heart attack

Between March and April of this year, *Eduarda (49) had a heart attack and stayed in the hospital for three or four days. During that time, she realized the extent of the role she played at home. Her family managed to handle basic tasks, but had difficulty maintaining organization and the daily routine. Eduarda was then able to recognize that she was one of the pillars of the family and that her presence mattered more than she herself had realized.

2) A pastime for whom?

During one of her sessions at IC, *Amélia, 46, said that her mother liked to bake bread and considered it a kind of therapy. Because of this, the family made sure to buy the ingredients so her mother could keep doing something that gave her pleasure. However, when the IC professional asked what that woman’s own “therapy” was, that is, her favorite pastime, she froze and simply said: “Wow, I don’t know!”

Mothers forget about themselves and completely lose their identity. They think they’re just someone’s mother and stop introducing themselves by their own name. In our circles, we always ask them to introduce themselves and say their own name. Many answer: ‘I’m so-and-so, so-and-so’s mother.’ And we never ask them to say that,” points out Noaly.

3) What beautiful earrings!

*Laura, 47, had never worn earrings. As a child, her mother did not let her pierce her ears because of family customs. One day, she received a pair of small earrings as a keepsake from an activity held in her faith community. She decided to wear them and received compliments from friends, which made her very happy! From then on, she began wearing bigger and more striking earrings.

*Fictitious names

On July 13, we celebrate the publication of the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA), the main milestone in protecting childhood and adolescence in Brazil. The ECA represents a collective commitment to recognizing children and adolescents as rights holders who need to be cared for in order to grow up with dignity. It sets out a series of rights that guarantee access to health, education, care, culture and opportunities for their full development.

Each chapter addresses an essential dimension of holistic care. Chapter III covers the right to family and community life that every child should have. At first, this seems to be a right common to much of the population: being part of a community and a family. But when we look more closely, we understand that it goes far beyond simply ensuring that a child has family members and other community ties.

Art. 19. Children and adolescents have the right to be raised and educated within their own family and, exceptionally, in a substitute family, with family and community life assured, in an environment that guarantees their holistic development.

What is the right to family life?

Essentially, it means ensuring that every child and adolescent can have a family to raise and educate them, whether their birth family, extended family or adoptive family. That is why Chapter III of the ECA addresses practical matters involving custody and adoption, for example.

But it doesn’t stop there. Franciele Fernandes, a social worker at Instituto C, says that, to fully guarantee this right, the ECA requires taking into account the quality of family relationships, offering an environment marked by respect, care, protection and the strengthening of emotional bonds.

In other words, the family needs to be a healthy space that supports the child’s development. “Likewise, situations of violence, neglect, abandonment or any form of rights violation require intervention by the protection network, always seeking to preserve family life whenever conditions allow,” Franciele adds.

Instituto C understands that the family is the primary space for a child’s holistic development and should receive support to fulfill its protective role. That is why our interventions seek to strengthen family bonds, identify possible gaps in access to public policies and coordinate the social assistance and intersectoral network,” says the social worker.

It is everyone’s duty

Lawyer Ana Claudia Cifali has been the legal manager at Instituto Alana for more than six years. In an interview with Instituto C, she goes further and says that guaranteeing this right is not the responsibility of families alone. “[The Statute] also seeks to strengthen and improve public policies that promote this kind of family and community life, in support of families,” she says. According to the lawyer, the State, organizations and society need to work together to bring this right to all families, especially the most vulnerable, preventing situations that put children at risk.

This caregiving role is not innate, so it is very important that the State and society support families in fulfilling what is expected of them. In this sense, the National Care Policy, which was developed by the Federal Government, is very important for ensuring support, especially for single mothers,” Ana Claudia comments.

And what is the right to community life?

It is a principle that recognizes the importance of children’s and adolescents’ participation in different social spaces, such as school, health services, cultural, sports and leisure activities, as well as spending time with neighbors and friends. “These spaces contribute to social and emotional development and to strengthening a sense of belonging to the community,” explains Franciele.

Like the right to access culture and leisure, community life is often downplayed when compared with more vital rights, such as access to health, housing and good nutrition. However, it is just as important for ensuring a child’s holistic development. “[This right] also encompasses other aspects, such as the possibility for children to experience their territory and live alongside their community free from violence,” highlights Ana Claudia. Hence the importance, for example, of having public leisure spaces, neighborhoods free from violence (whether territorial or police violence, for example) and cultural centers spread throughout the city.

National Plan for Family and Community Life

In 2025, the National Plan for Family and Community Life (PNCFC) was approved, created precisely to protect and uphold this right throughout Brazil. It is valid for ten years and sets out a series of guidelines to strengthen family and community life, prevent situations of vulnerability and social risk, improve foster care services, support family reintegration processes and ensure that decisions about adoption and substitute families are always guided by the best interests of the child and adolescent. In practice, the plan provides for:

• Expanding public policies that support families;
• Guaranteeing safe spaces to play and spend time together;
• Improving housing, health and mental health policies;
• Strengthening sports, culture, leisure and social participation.

The Plan reaffirms that no child grows up alone — and therefore no family should have to care for a child alone. After all, protecting childhood and adolescence is a responsibility shared among the State, society, social organizations and every space where life happens.

June 12 is Brazil’s National Day Against Child Labor. In Brazil, 1.6 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 were in this situation in 2024, according to the most recent data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Of this total, 1.195 million carried out various economic activities, while 455,000 produced only for their own consumption, mainly in subsistence farming.

A dashboard from the Ministry of Labor and Employment released in February showed that less than 1% of this total was reached by labor inspections and that only 2,745 children and adolescents were removed from this situation throughout 2024. Given such a serious scenario, we need to look beyond the statistics: what are families lacking that leads a child or adolescent to need to work?

What is child labor?

According to IBGE, child labor is work that is harmful to the health and development of children and adolescents. To classify it, criteria such as age group, type of activity, number of hours worked, school attendance and exposure to danger are taken into account. For this reason, programs such as Jovem Aprendiz (Young Apprentice) do not fall into the category of child labor.

In Brazil, adolescents can work from the age of 14 only as apprentices, under a special contract that combines practical activity, professional training and school attendance. This modality differs from child labor because it must respect limits on working hours, protect the adolescent’s development and not harm their studies.

For Franciele Fernandes, a social worker at IC, this is “the best of both worlds” when an adolescent wants or needs to earn some income. “In the Young Apprentice program, there’s full oversight by the training organizations,” she says. “The problem is child labor. When it comes to work for adolescents, I see no problem at all if everything is within the law, with no harm to the young person’s health.”

A reflection of society

When we talk about child labor, it is important not to point fingers before understanding why a family ended up in this situation. That is what Jéssica Cruz, an educator at Instituto C, says. “Parents and caregivers sometimes don’t understand the harm that can happen to children, so how can I blame someone who doesn’t even know this exists?” When a child stops playing and starts working, it reflects the entire society in which they live. After all, why aren’t the rights guaranteed by the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA) reaching them?

The answer to this question is multifaceted and should not be generalized. “In social work, we understand that each family is unique and has countless reasons for living the way it does,” says Franciele. “Social vulnerability itself ends up leading children into this.” Often, when caregivers lack time, money, knowledge and a support network, young people end up having to help with household bills at an early age. However, this reality should not be understood as natural or acceptable, but as a reflection of social inequalities and of the need to strengthen public policies that protect children and adolescents.

Work and child development

According to Jéssica, child labor can affect children’s development in different ways, especially when they are deprived of the right to play, an essential activity at this stage. It can, for example, harm their physical health, especially in situations involving risk of accidents, long working hours, intense physical effort (such as carrying excessive weight) or exposure to toxic substances, machinery, dangerous tools and adverse conditions (such as extreme cold or heat).

There’s also cognitive development in education. The child’s school performance drops, and they have trouble concentrating and learning — that is, when they don’t drop out of school altogether (…). This child will probably have fewer opportunities for training, because they’re not going to school. So they may end up losing sight of a professional future beyond the activity they’re doing at that moment,” says Jéssica.

Childhood work also harms children’s emotional development. The buildup of stress, pressure and anxiety can confuse them to the point that they cannot understand or name what they feel, generating feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem. In addition, there are losses in social development, since they spend less time with other children developing the skills to talk and get along with others.

Child labor doesn’t stay in childhood; it can cause problems well into adulthood,” she concludes.

The responsibility of older siblings

In addition to paid work, there is another responsibility that often falls on children and adolescents: caring for younger siblings. In overburdened families, especially when there is a child with a disability who requires therapies, appointments and constant attention, older children may end up taking on adult tasks far too early.

“At Instituto C, I see this role of caring for siblings more than the role of worker,” says Franciele. According to her, there are children and adolescents who grow up as their mother’s main source of support, even though they also need to live their own childhood. “There are many 12-year-olds who already help care for their siblings. But they also have the right to a childhood.”

Childhood, care and survival

That is why, to prevent child labor, we need to look at those who provide care. When a caregiver is overburdened, without sufficient income, without a support network and with little access to rights, children and adolescents may end up taking on responsibilities too early. That is what happened to Zola*, 31, who is supported at Instituto C’s Central Hub.

*A fictitious name used to protect the interviewee’s identity.

As a child, she lived with her mother, father and seven siblings in a single room the family had inherited. Their income was insufficient, and her mother tried to provide for them however she could: she took in laundry, worked as a cleaner, worked at a market stall and even begged on the street to get food for her children.

Over time, she found another alternative. “My mom would rather buy a box of candy for us to sell on the street than teach my sisters to beg,” she recalls. Work, in that context, appeared as an attempt to survive in the face of hunger and the lack of basic living conditions. “We went through a lot of hardship. When it rained, our house flooded,” she says. “So, to avoid going without, we’d go sell candy on the street so we’d have something to eat.” Today, Zola is married, owns her home and is the mother of two neurodivergent children, aged 13 and 11. Her husband has a formal job, and she gave up her registered employment to go back to selling candy on the street, giving her more time to care for them.

So it’s not the mothers’ fault; we can’t simply blame anyone, because sometimes it’s a way of surviving. The solution [involves] strengthening and having support networks. Going, for example, to the school and telling them what you’re going through, so they can find the best way to help (…). What we want is the guarantee of rights and for everyone to know they’re not alone,” concludes Jéssica.

If you know of an irregular child labor situation, report it. Reports can be made through Disque 100, a free hotline that operates 24 hours a day, every day of the week, or through the Sistema Ipê Trabalho Infantil, the Labor Inspectorate’s channel dedicated specifically to child labor reports. You can also contact your municipality’s Conselho Tutelar (Child Protection Council). Reports can be anonymous and help activate the protection network for children and adolescents.

Reaffirming the commitment to transparency and social responsibility we have built over 14 years, we are launching our 2025 Activity Report: Strengthening care, broadening horizons. Every year, this moment invites us to revisit the achievements, lessons and actions that transform realities through our multidisciplinary work.

2025 was a year of learning, expansion and recognition. We saw our work gain space on TV, reach new territories in Brazil and receive important awards and certifications. All of this was only possible thanks to every person who believes in Instituto C and to our team, who dedicate themselves every day to caring for children, adolescents and families.

The 2025 Activity Report is a portrait of this year: of consolidation and reach, of sustainability and positioning, of care in motion. A year in which we strengthened our foundations to go further and kept opening paths, with courage and method, so that more children and families can live with dignity, protection and possibilities,” reflects Vera Oliveira, IC’s founder and executive director.

Since its founding, Instituto C has worked in coordination with the social assistance network and different stakeholders in the territories where it operates. Along this journey, we have learned that holistic care for children and adolescents requires strengthening not only families, but also the networks and services that support them.

It was based on this understanding that we structured new areas of work. In addition to direct support for families, we began organizing and expanding initiatives focused on disseminating our methodology, training professionals and teams, and influencing networks and public policy, bringing holistic care to new territories and contexts.

Today, this movement translates into four interconnected lines of work that structure Instituto C’s activities: direct care, methodology multiplication, training in holistic care, and advocacy.

Numbers that reflect our impact

Direct services remain at the heart of our work and of the impact we build alongside families. Throughout 2025, more than 3,000 people were served at Instituto C’s own hubs. With the support of the technical team, many of them achieved significant changes in their lives:

• 81% adopted healthier eating habits;
• 78% reported higher self-esteem;
• 95% showed progress in their knowledge of their fundamental rights and in accessing the social assistance network;
• 82% made progress in their autonomy.

Among the families served, 42% increased their income, with an average growth of 105%. In addition, 35% of unemployed adults found a job, and half of them started their own businesses. These results, among many others, are what give meaning to every service we provide.

Partners who joined forces with us

Partnerships make a difference in the third sector, and for Instituto C they are extremely valuable. Together with regional organizations, we expanded our care to Taubaté and Porto Alegre, offering support in different areas to those who need guidance and individualized care.

In 2025, we also had the support of companies and institutions that strengthened our fundraising, which is essential for the continuity of our activities. Pandora, Projeto Ilumina, The FOB, B2Mamy, Five Little Monkeys and Odontoprev were some of the partner organizations that stood by us in different initiatives throughout the year.

With Cyrela, we brought psychosocial care into a new context through two projects focused on construction workers and their families. The partnership brought important lessons, broadened our perspective toward audiences we had not yet reached directly and marked the beginning of our work providing care within companies. The results were so positive that, in 2026, the initiative will expand from one to ten construction sites.

Companies, universities and volunteers also contributed by offering training in finance, education and employability to the families we serve. And, of course, none of this would be possible without every donor who chose to trust our work.

A year of recognition and visibility

It is impossible to look back on 2025 without fondness. After all, it was a year in which our work was seen by many people and, beyond that, its impact can be seen in the Institute’s growth toward new horizons, with solid partnerships that have taken us further — to more families and children who need care.

Our participation in The Wall, a segment of the TV show Domingão com Huck, was one of the milestones that brought more people interested in getting to know and being part of our work. Being on TV was a way of telling the world our story, and the response was rewarding.

A few months later, the news of support from Criança Esperança was also essential for us to continue our projects and support hundreds of children.

We were also recognized in different ways across our areas of work. We received distinctions such as the Autism-Friendly Seal and CEBAS (Certification of Charitable Social Assistance Entities), which show the Institute’s impact in the areas of human rights, social assistance, diversity and inclusion. In addition, for the ninth consecutive time, we were among the 100 Best NGOs in Brazil, which makes us very proud.

A team that makes a difference

For all the work of 2025 to be done, and even for this report to reach you, it took a collective effort from our entire team, which is diverse, plural and committed to the Institute’s purpose.

Each person, whether on the technical team or in the administrative areas, played an important role in strengthening our methodology and building paths to expand our impact.

We can say it was a year of movement. Movement of internal strengthening, deeper connections and planning for new possibilities. We broadened dialogues, deepened partnerships and gave more visibility to our actions, aware that sharing journeys, achievements and lessons is a fundamental part of our transformative purpose,” concludes Diego Schultz, Instituto C’s administrative director.

We invite you to read the 2025 Activity Report and learn more about IC’s work and our year of transformation.

In recent months, we have followed the large number of cases of violence against women that have come to light, and we have been faced with an increasingly difficult scenario that deserves everyone’s attention. In 2025 alone, 12 women were victims of violence every 24 hours, a figure 9% higher than the previous year, according to the report “Elas Vivem: a urgência da vida” (They Live: the urgency of life), produced by the Rede de Observatórios da Segurança (Security Observatories Network).

Debates and the search for solutions to combat violence have become more necessary every day, and this conversation should begin in childhood, when girls and, above all, boys are in the process of developing and learning cultural values and behaviors. With a deeply rooted cultural structure, often associated with the concept of toxic masculinity, which runs through different spaces in society and gains even more strength on the internet, exposure to violent speech and behavior makes boys feel obliged to reproduce it in order to fit into this environment of hatred toward women.

We see this, for example, on social media, with movements such as the “red pill,” which fuel misogyny. “We already live in a patriarchal society shaped by structural sexism, and groups like these normalize hatred of women, helping to fuel psychological, digital and physical violence,” says Noaly Avenoso, a psychologist at Instituto C.

With this exposure to the digital environment and to unregulated content comes the urgent need to collectively create safer and less prejudiced environments for children. Recently, the Digital ECA (Statute of Children and Adolescents in the digital environment) was regulated, the first step toward making the internet safer for young people.

What is the Digital ECA and why is it important in helping to combat misogyny?

Approximately 95% of children aged 9 to 17 use the internet, and there is no escaping it: the digital world is part of the lives of both adults and children, but we need to enter it consciously and responsibly. Rodrigo Nejm, a psychologist and digital education specialist at Instituto Alana, explains what the internet is for a child: “they use it to form their identity, to make friends, to study, and even to talk to their own family members. So it’s one more environment they spend time in every day.”

According to the specialist, the Digital ECA changes the entire architecture of the online environment so that platforms are prepared, with minimum safety and privacy conditions, to receive children. The law is also a tool that gives parents and caregivers more control over what children and adolescents consume.

With the regulation, children now have access only to content appropriate for their age. As Rodrigo points out, what children and adolescents consume has a great influence on their lives. “When they watch videos and influencers, they’re not just consuming entertainment. They’re also consuming cultural and social values. They’re also learning how to behave,” he stresses.

In this way, the Digital ECA can be a strong pillar in blocking misogynistic content that reinforces sexism in childhood. One example is restricting access to pornographic content, which, when accessed by children over time, especially boys, can produce a type of masculinity that sexualizes women and normalizes violence.

We need to guide and strengthen education

With frequent exposure to violent and sexist content, parents, caregivers and people who work with children may notice inappropriate behavior by boys toward girls. That is why it is necessary to act before these attitudes start to harm them as citizens.

For Rodrigo, from Instituto Alana, families and schools need to work on digital education together with sex education, which helps children understand the boundaries of their own bodies and of other people’s bodies. “We need to know about and follow children’s digital lives, but also provide this sex education, which isn’t just about sex; it’s about care and respect,” he explains.

Noaly says that it is in everyday life that parents and caregivers can educate in a less prejudiced way, through simple attitudes and by seeking knowledge. She stresses the importance of not reproducing speech and behavior that perpetuate structural sexism, seeking information on the subject and correcting actions and words on the spot.

The internet is not just a villain; it can be an ally

Just as we can find inappropriate content in the digital world, the internet can also offer children a space for learning. Children’s channels with information, cartoons or songs can open discussions about topics that are part of this stage of life, helping parents and caregivers have difficult conversations in a more accessible way.

“Families have in the internet an important place of learning, which can be preserved as a space for participation, where children and adolescents themselves can also take part and have access to quality information,” explains Rodrigo.

Now, it is up to all of us to monitor and ensure that children are safe online, and that the Digital ECA becomes like the Consumer Protection Code, always present in Brazilians’ minds. Caring for childhoods and educating boys against gender-based violence is a collective responsibility: “If, throughout childhood, children are raised to fight for the end of structural sexism, we will have lower rates of violence against women and psychologically healthier men,” says Noaly.

During Women’s Month, we talk a lot about women’s strength, but it is important to remember that they are also the ones who carry the responsibility of taking care of everything, often without a support network. This care, whether for children, a family member or household chores, takes up a great deal of women’s time, as they make up the majority of those responsible for these activities.

In 2022 alone, women spent almost twice as many hours per week as men on unpaid domestic and care work. And there is an aggravating factor: the lower their income, the more time they devote to this work. These figures were released by DataCuidados and reveal the overload women carry and the gender inequality involved.

In this context, the National Care Policy was created in 2024, with the aim of recognizing care as essential work for the sustainability of life, the economy and society itself. The goal is to make visible what has historically been treated as women’s private responsibility and to seek solutions to reduce this overload.

The Policy, established by Law No. 15,069, was developed with the participation of government bodies from different areas and strong influence from civil society organizations that, like Instituto C, see up close how much care has consumed women’s lives. It guarantees everyone the right to care (understood as the right to care for others, to be cared for and to self-care) and determines that the State must implement the Policy gradually and progressively through a National Care Plan, called Brasil que Cuida (Caring Brazil).

The impact of the care overload

Also according to data from the 2022 Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD-C), over the course of the year, Black women spend around 72.8 more hours on care than white women. This shows how much race, in addition to gender, still directly affects the lives of those dedicated to caregiving.

Just by looking at the number of hours women devote to care, it is already possible to infer that they cannot reconcile this routine with paid work. This lack of time also affects the course of women’s lives, reducing their chances of completing their education and preventing self-care, leisure and participation in public life, among many other areas.

How does the Policy work in practice?

Brasil que Cuida is the instrument for implementing the National Care Policy, promoting policies, services and programs so that the law is actually put into practice across different sectors. The goal is to reduce inequalities of gender, race, class, age, territory and disability in care work, and to promote the recognition and appreciation of care as essential work.

Even before the law, the country already had public care policies for the population, whether through daycare centers, health services or shelter programs. The problem is that they were built in a fragmented way, each within its own specific area.

Now, the challenge is to integrate them, as Nayara Oliveira, IC’s institutional development coordinator, explains: “They were not originally designed as part of a structured care policy. That is why they often operate in a disconnected way and still cannot fully reach everyone who needs support in their daily lives.”

According to the plan released by the Federal Government, the investment planned for 2024 to 2027 is organized into five main pillars:

1. Guaranteeing rights and promoting policies for those who need care and for those who provide unpaid care;
2. Reconciling paid work, education and family care needs;
3. Decent work for domestic workers and paid care workers;
4. Recognizing and valuing care work in its many forms and driving cultural change toward a fairer social organization of care;
5. Governance and management of the National Care Plan.

Among the projects scheduled to take place by next year — some of which have already begun — are public laundries to reduce the domestic workload, with community spaces integrated with cultural and training activities; cuidotecas, spaces for welcoming and caring for children at universities, federal institutes and municipalities; places in daycare centers, preschools and full-time schools for families headed by women; and the Mulheres Mil + Cuidados program, which offers professional training in care for women in vulnerable situations, with a focus on domestic workers and caregivers.

By redistributing care among the State, families and society, these policies help address the gender, race and class inequalities present in the social organization of care,” says Nayara.

Why is care even in our name?

At Instituto C, we serve many families that are mostly headed by women, who are also the main providers of care, and we seek to support them in accessing rights, public services and support networks in their territories. In this way, we recognize that our work is also part of the field of care policies.

For Nayara, this work also serves as a bridge to help families live with more dignity. “By strengthening these caregivers and expanding their access to rights, Instituto C also helps them have better conditions to carry out their protective and caregiving role with dignity, while also putting self-care on the agenda as a right addressed within the policy,” she explains.

Talking about care policies is a duty of society as a whole, and it cannot be the responsibility of families alone, but also of the government. Strengthening those who provide care is also a way of ensuring the development and protection of those who receive it.

The right to housing is one of the social rights guaranteed by the 1988 Federal Constitution and is essential for anyone to live with dignity. According to the Housing Deficit Survey, updated by Fundação João Pinheiro with data from the PNADc (Continuous National Household Sample Survey), around 26 million urban households in Brazil have some type of inadequacy.

The same survey also shows that the state of São Paulo has one of the largest housing deficits in the country. This means precarious housing, family cohabitation (when more than one family shares the same home for lack of an alternative), excessive rent burden (when a family spends more than 30% of its income on housing) and overcrowding.

Having a home is not just having a place to shelter, but a safe, adequate and dignified structure in which to live, build bonds, create stories and fully exercise citizenship. In this way, it also becomes possible to exercise other rights.

In practice, we are still somewhat far from ensuring that this right is truly upheld for all Brazilians, but fortunately we can count on some public policies that strengthen access to housing.

At Instituto C, the social work area helps families secure their right to housing through social programs. Franciele Fernandes, a social worker at IC, works with families every day and helps each one looking for a dignified place to live to enroll in the programs, depending on their circumstances. For her, “housing is very important. Because a person who doesn’t have a roof over their head doesn’t know whether they’ll have somewhere to stay tomorrow,” and this guidance work is essential.

I believe housing is a fundamental factor in a person’s life. And when you manage to secure it, it represents human dignity.”

Public housing policies

Among public housing policies, some are better known to Brazilians, such as the ones below:

Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House, My Life)

Minha Casa Minha Vida is the Federal Government’s main housing program, created in 2009 to expand access to decent housing for low- and middle-income families. The program works according to income brackets: the lower the family income, the greater the government support.

Families can receive subsidies — part of the property’s value is paid by the government — or gain access to financing with reduced interest rates and longer repayment periods. Enrollment is usually done through financial agents, such as Caixa Econômica Federal, or through municipal housing registries.

Pode Entrar (São Paulo)

The Pode Entrar (“Come In”) Program is the largest affordable housing initiative in the city of São Paulo, focused on acquiring and building decent homes for low-income families. The program serves families with incomes of up to 6 minimum wages, prioritizing the purchase of private properties, public-private partnerships (PPPs) and land regularization.

To take part, families must be enrolled in the city’s Housing Registry and meet the requirements. In addition, all developments in the program reserve quotas for people with disabilities, older adults and women experiencing domestic violence.

Vida Longa (São Paulo)

The Vida Longa (“Long Life”) Program, run by the state of São Paulo, was created to provide housing security and shelter for older adults in situations of social vulnerability, especially those with weakened family ties. It is protective in nature and benefits hundreds of people aged 60 or older.

Older adults who benefit from the program pay nothing for their housing, not even for electricity or water. Participating municipalities are responsible for donating the land on which the developments are built by the São Paulo State Housing and Urban Development Company (CDHU), and for managing and maintaining the complex once construction is complete.

Much more than a place to live

For families who obtain a home through these programs, this achievement means much more than a place to live: it represents a new beginning with something that belongs to them. We are not only talking about the physical structure, but also about the security, dignity and autonomy residents gain from it.

One example is Tatiane, mother of Ryan and Lorenzo, who has Down syndrome. She secured her home through the São Paulo City Hall program with support from IC’s social work team. When she came to us, she didn’t know she needed to regularly update her registration in Pode Entrar, where she had already been enrolled for a few years.

With Franciele’s help, she updated it and, shortly afterwards, the result came out: Tatiane’s family had been selected. “I think every human being should at least have their own corner to live in, and the rest we can work for,” says Tatiane.

She speaks joyfully about this achievement, especially because she will finally be able to stop renting and have a place of her own to leave to her children. “It’s hard to work all month knowing you’ll have to hand over more than half your salary to someone else. And now I think that at least I’ll be paying for something that’s mine, that I’ll leave to my children when I’m no longer here,” she explains.

This joy over a new home has also become part of the life of Márcia, a grandmother of eight who is also supported by IC. Through CDHU and with the support of the social work area, she was finally able to secure her own space.

This achievement marks an important milestone in the life of Márcia’s family, who lived in the Pantanal area of São Paulo and suffered from the neighborhood’s conditions. “I’m a very happy person, very grateful along with my daughters that we’re going to have a new home,” says Márcia.

Now, Tatiane and Márcia are preparing for this new phase while they wait for their homes to be handed over. But the hope of moving to a new place has already made a difference in each of their lives, as they can now dream of a more dignified place to live.

A right that needs to be more accessible

Although these programs are very important for the population, Franciele points out that she has faced difficulties in obtaining information from the agencies responsible for each of them. She says that when families have questions, it is hard to find answers, and she has to look for ways to help them.

In this context, the role of the third sector in the right to housing has also been important in ensuring people live in adequate places. Organizations working on building and improving homes, advocating for rights and providing legal guidance have made a difference in the lives of hundreds of people by helping them secure basic living conditions.

The security of being in a welcoming home with the necessary resources also brings a sense of belonging to the territory, which is important for a family’s development. In this way, housing stops being just a physical space and comes to represent protection and identity.