2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

The Donas de Si (Master of Her Own) Program, of the Banco do Povo (External link) of the Municipality of Belém, offers short-term professional qualification courses aimed at generating immediate income, as well as digital inclusion, free of charge and with quality certification and national validity. The initial objective was to assist single mothers benefiting from the municipal income transfer program to empower and encourage them to undertake entrepreneurship, including complementing our other program, Crédito Solidário (External link) (Solidarity Credit), which guarantees up to R$5,000 per person. individuals and up to R$ 10,000 for legal entities.

In order to serve the 1,393,399 inhabitants of the Metropolitan Region of Belém, a thriving city in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the Program is part of the municipal network of cross-cutting care for vulnerable populations, made up of the Women's Coordination (COMBEL), the Sexual Diversity Coordination (CDS ) and the Anti-Racist Coordination (COANT). In addition to public administration, we signed service contracts with institutions of expertise (Senar (External link) and Senac (External link)), offering courses in the areas of aesthetics, information technology, management, gastronomy and fashion. Also, the UN is a partner – via UNHCR and UN Women –, helping to assist Warao indigenous refugees, LGBTQIA+ people, women victims of violence, relatives of inmates in the Penitentiary System, solidarity economy entrepreneurs, homeless people, women’s organizations and others.

We maintained the offer to the public in social vulnerability, assisted by the municipal income transfer program “Bora Belém (External link)”, with courses held in the territories in schools, churches and community centers. We opened another service front, with registrations for the general public, with classes in modern laboratories at the headquarters of the contracted institution. All free. In 23 months of the program, we reached 1,865 graduates.

Donas de Si became very sought after, with vacancies filling up quickly. We work with a reserve register to take advantage of the remaining ones and, when necessary, we open specific classes to reduce the demand.

Classes are small. Each student receives full attention from the instructors and leaves delighted with the quality of the courses, wanting to repeat the experience in other courses of the program. Among the most common reports are the emotion of learning, the care of the teachers, the friendships built, the certification for the market, the recovery of self-esteem and overcoming depression, in addition to the security to seek new ways of earning income.

We have found, in this Donas de Si experience, people still emotionally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, such as the death of family members, marital separations, unemployment and even loss of housing due to the socioeconomic impact of the global crisis. There are reports of women who were undergoing drug treatment for depression or who did not leave the house, without the spirit to live, who found new stimuli in the courses.

We serve single mothers; young people looking for their first job; middle-aged people with no prospects; victims who need economic independence to get out of violent relationships; and publics that suffer discrimination and cannot access the labor market. Donas de Si brought the hope that many people needed, by providing knowledge with acceptance and pointing to a new horizon of possibilities.

https://bancodopovo.belem.pa.gov.br/programas/capacitacao/programa-donas-de-si/ (External link)