A Look Back at the 6th Edition of TozziniFreire’s Inclusion Week
From August 26-30, TozziniFreire held the 6thedition of its Inclusion Week, an internal initiative for learning and sharing experiences across all the firm’s offices. The event engages its personnel and social entrepreneurs from NGOs, seeking to raise awareness of the four priority themes of its Inclusion program, also known as TFInclusão: gender, LGBTI+, people with disabilities, and race.
The Inclusion Week was opened by Fernando Serec, TozziniFreire’s CEO, and Clara Serva, partner in the Business and Human Rights practice, followed by a lecture in Porto Alegre, broadcast live to all offices, on how volunteering was crucial during the recent challenges faced by Rio Grande do Sul, featuring partner Fernanda Fossati; associate Luiza Lanzer, TFInclusão ambassador and associate Eduardo Meirelles.
Still at Porto Alegre office, there was a roundtable discussion on transsexuality with Gabriella Meindrad, moderated by partner Mauricio Góes; a bazaar by Sociedade Porto-Alegrense de Auxílio aos Necessitados (Spaan), a NGO that provides elderly support in Porto Alegre; and dance activities with Clube Social Pertence, a non-profit organization that supports people with disabilities and their families by providing assistance services in order to promote their inclusion in the labor market. We also had a sale of candies by Delícias da Rose.
We hosted a roundtable meeting on the democratization of education with Marina Branco, a PhD in School Psychology; SmartTalks on Corporate Social Responsibility as soft skills for the Lawyer 5.0, featuring partner Maria Elisa Verri, associate Jéssica Borges, and innovation manager Fernanda Marinho.
At Campinas branch, boys and girls from Grupo Primavera, an organization that assists people in social vulnerability, performed a choir and brought handcrafted items produced over the year by them for exhibition and sale. We had the presence of Lucas Silva Lopes, a lawyer, researcher, activist, and board member of Casa da Criança Paralítica de Campinas, a NGO that provides free rehab services for children and youth with physical disabilities in Campinas. He spoke about his work at the institution, ableism, and his experiences as a person with a disability.
At São Paulo headquarters, we provided workshops on Arabic writing, art therapy, and African sculptures. We also hostedAdere, a NGO that assists people with intellectual disabilities, selling handmade products by its attendees; Assouan Art’s, by Assouan Lea, an African woman from Ivory Coast, who sells artifacts from her homeland; Clichê Acessórios Afro, selling afro accessories; Arte de Maria, selling stationery items with feminist motif; Axé da Rainha, handmade accessories with ancestral inspirations; and the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists. Additionally, we had gourmet brigadeiros (Brazilian chocolate truffles) by Downlícia; Shawarma Show; and Venezuelan food by Aromas Café.
At Brasília office, we featured Agailfesta, by Benideld Maria Hernandez, a Venezuelan pastry chef who started baking cakes from home to support her son’s development with cerebral palsy, and now she is planning to open a cake store and teach her recipes.
To close the event, on the 29th, we promoted a special lecture with Luciana Temer, president of the NGO Liberta, who talked about her work in the fight against child sexual exploitation in Brazil. This event was hosted at São Paulo office and broadcast live, via Teams, to all TozziniFreire branches.