ABOUT THE PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS BERNARD VAN LEER FOUNDATION

Believing that everyone deserves a good start, the Bernard Van Leer Foundation has been investing in Early Childhood for 50 years and has supported parenting programs in Brazil for over 40 years. We know that investing in the first years of life brings profound and lasting gains to society and that changing the beginning of history changes history as a whole.

We are also fully aware that it is at home, the heart of the family, that most interactions between children and caregivers take place. That's why supporting programs that stimulate building positive parenting practices is one of our central concerns. There is strong scientific evidence that family visitation programs are essential for developing positive parenting practices and promoting the integral development of infants and young children.

The fact is that several ingredients make home visiting programs successful, including structure, financing, methodology, but above all, people. In unprecedented and challenging times like the one we live in, people and their commitments emerge as “a light at the end of the tunnel,” as support and hope for those in a more vulnerable situation.

This award celebrates the importance of this form of action in our public policy, in which the “human encounter” is the central pillar for the promotion of health and integral development. Let's celebrate the “encounters” that we were able to create and maintain at this time in our history, getting to know better who makes it happen on a daily basis.

Cláudia Vidigal

Bernard van Leer Foundation representative in Brazil