OUR HISTORY

We develop children to develop society

We embraced the cause of Early Childhood in 2007, yet our dates back to 1965. The Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation was born to honor the memory of Maria Cecilia, the daughter of Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal and banker Gastão Eduardo de Bueno Vidigal who died of leukemia when she was only 13 years old. The Foundation began fostering research in hematology and kept working in this area until 2001. The first project was a laboratory in partnership with the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (USP) and for almost four decades, the Foundation helped promote research, translation and dissemination of knowledge in this specific medical area. Shifting the focus to early childhood in 2007, the solid experience of the Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation was directed to this new all-important challenge. Underpinned by scientific knowledge, new projects were created and evolved into concrete impact actions, such as the Legal Framework for Early Childhood – a law that drives the creation of programs, services and initiatives aimed at promoting full development for young children.

In 2019, we realized it was time to adjust our efforts again. We maintained our focus on early childhood yet defined a new strategy. We set out to plan the changes we would like to see in Brazil by 2030. We defined four major impact goals, with short-, medium- and long-term milestones: enhancing early childhood education (early childhood education), strengthening childcare (parenting), assessing child development (evaluation) and raising awareness in society (communication).

Ensure that all young boys and girls have access to childcare and pre-school education for their full development.

The basis for this reorganization was the 2030 Agenda created by the UN in 2015, with 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets to eradicate poverty and promote a dignified life for every inhabitant of our planet. It was only natural for the Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation to emphasize the SDGs that involve Early Childhood, especially SDG 4, called Quality Education, and its goal 2: “By 2030, ensure that all boys and girls have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-school education, so that they are ready for elementary school.” where schools were closed for the longest period2 . More than ever, all of us who are public, social and private leaders, parents, caregivers, members of the press, researchers and entrepreneurs must work together and make every effort to ensure early childhood is prioritized as it must be.

Not tomorrow, but now.

Redefining our path in 2019 was essential for us to face what would come in 2020 and 2021. With so many challenges brought by the spread of covid-19, we had to to draw society's attention to the specific impacts of the pandemic on the lives of children from 0 to 6 years old. In such an important development phase, they were suddenly removed from school and the possibilities of social interaction.

In Brazil, where one out of three children aged 0 to 6 lives in poverty1 or extreme poverty, the situation was even more worrisome. Brazil is the country

90% of all brain connections are formed in Early Childhood, and this experience helps to shape adult life

1 Source: IBGE and MDS 2018. 2 Source: OCDE 2021