Somos Um

We believe that by selecting a specific social or environmental issue and by creating a business model to help entrepreneurs, specially women and youngsters, we will be able to transform the harsh life present today in the outskirts of large Brazilian cities.  The Elevate Prize will help us in the mission to empower these people to obtain a positive social impact in their communities.  We aim at strengthening entrepreneurship education for women, widening the scope of our program from 30 to 300 women per year.  We also aim at developing youngsters in business management and developing business to drive the needs of the population at the base of the social pyramid.  Today we are able to help 5 businesses per year.  With the Elevate Prize we look forward to assisting 10 new businesses.  We will also be able to promote two Entrepreneur Innovation Events.  Each event will target 100 youngsters who will search for solutions to contribute to SDG’s. 

Additionally, we will be able to generate 2 job positions within our organization. We will be able to maintain our team and provide training for them, so that they can help entrepreneurs to manage their business with an improved performance.

I am a dreamer and a maker who believes in doing things with a purpose in mind.  I believe that, due to my privileges, I have a social responsibility.  I ask for divine orientation to know how I can use my gifts, talents and instruments in order to impact more people. Social entrepreneurship is an effective way to lead people out of poverty, therefore I dedicate my efforts to support people ‘s empowerment through entrepreneurship.  Additionally, I hold the position of People and Social Impact Director of C.Rolim Engenharia, a 44-year-old construction company known for its strong work  in social and environmental responsibility in the State of Ceará.  Now we have the help of Yunus Brasil to transform it  into a social impact business model company, in order to solve social housing problems in Brazil.  In fact, when I discovered myself as a social entrepreneur, the NGO Somos Um was founded.  Somos Um aims at encouraging social entrepreneurship as a bridge and connection among all sectors and players of society - first, second and third sectors, universities and civil society by creating and developing public policies with  large scale impact.

In Brazil, only 25% of entrepreneurs have had a business for more than 5 years.  48% of them say that finance is their greatest problem and 22% of them say they need special management tutoring and guidance. To the entrepreneurs from the base of social pyramid it’s extremely hard.  In 2020, 25% of our country’s adult  population opened up a small business, or had a 3,5 year business activity.  

Our answer to this is the social NGO Somos Um located in Fortaleza, Ceará, which aims at empowering people through entrepreneurship bringing prosperity to all, because we are all one. We prioritize women and youngsters through a holistic approach so that they can use working initiatives to provide them financial support as well as improvement in all other aspects of their lives.

Therefore, we offer an entrepreneurship background as well as we promote innovation events for social impact in  new businesses to 80% of the population that lives in the lowest extracts of the social pyramid.  Additionally, we support social impact businesses with our acceleration program by offering access to partnerships and facilitating investment opportunities.

In Brazil, the perception of existing business opportunities generated by the market for the base of the social pyramid is still limited.   Often, these opportunities are not aligned with the characteristics of this part of the population.  This fact impacts around 69.4% of our GDP and large companies still find it difficult to innovate in assisting this population in terms of products and adequate service.  Therefore, our purpose is to inspire entrepreneurs at the base of the social pyramid, meaning a disruptive innovation specifically to create new businesses, goods and services.  This will require radical innovation in technology and business models that are not yet encompassed by large companies.  Our differential is a program framed and structured to stimulate social entrepreneurs by focusing the person as the center of the business and mobilizing his/her internal and external competencies and techniques to innovate.  This innovation will allow the change of some services through learning processes or even natural processes to obtain a scale economy and an improvement in the use of resources to offer good quality goods at a lower price, earning moderate profit margins and therefore generating a positive impact in the community.

Main results in the last twelve months:

We qualified and trained 23 female and one male entrepreneurs to manage their small businesses in their communities.

We supported seven social businesses. We have sped five out of them since their beginning and now they are between the MVP and Business Organization phases. Two out of them have some funding and are in the traction and scale phase. 70% of the businesses are run by women and together impact almost 1000 families in the State of Ceará, providing jobs, increasing the income generation, providing quality education for youngsters and improving the value chain, providing affordable and fair priced products and services for the most vulnerable levels of the population.

Together with state and private entities, we are developing public politics of social housing to give dignity and safety to thousands of families in Fortaleza.

In response to the pandemics, we articulated several players of the society to fight hunger and to stimulate the economy in small communities, distributing 330 tons of staples.

We have provided consulting services to the University of Fortaleza to create an MBA course focused on Social Entrepreneurship and Management of the 3rd Sector, a pioneer course in Brazil.