Tomás de Lara

Pioneer in intersectoral work on social determinants of health, Dara Institute started by Dr. Vera Cordeiro to break the vicious cycle between poverty and disease, has up to date touched the lives of over 85,000 directly and millions other around the world. Voted #1 in LAC & Brazil, Dara, with its award-winning interdisciplinary methodology, holds the key to one of the direst problems our world faces in addressing the multidimensional facets of poverty. While Brazil is now in many ways a first world country, a large part of its population still faces social vulnerability and multifaceted challenges, putting millions of individuals at huge disadvantage and perpetuating the gap in access to services and opportunities. Over 7% of Brazil’s population had an income level below the international average of US$1.90 PPP per capita per day, with six out of ten children still living in poverty, deprived of access to education, clean water/sanitation, and housing. Strong civil society organizations that have emerged since the late 80’s have been key to birding the gap of endemic inequality and poverty. Dara Institute is a leading example of this. With its focus on the most vulnerable groups, Dara pioneers its cross-sectoral work by putting the families as protagonists in changing their lives, enhancing income generating capacity, reducing hospitalization rates, & improving education, well-being and housing security. With program boasting impressive rates of success, hospitalization dropping 86%, and income generation increasing by 92%, Dara’s methodology has been exported abroad, become a public policy, while the data transformed into a knowledge hub, set up to stimulate dialogue and action among civil society and government organizations. The work of the organization in large part depends on volunteer and partner support, as well as on donations by individuals, private sector actors, foundations, and institutions. Please consider becoming a sup