Vera Cordeiro began Saude Crianca Renascer, or the Children’s Health Association, in 1991, using a new approach to medical care in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to fight poverty and ill health simultaneously. Renascer seeks to break the cycle of poverty that goes, as Vera says, “from poverty to illness to hospital admission to release to readmission. And then often, too quickly, to death.” Renascer addresses the conditions under which the children got sick in the first place, thus seeking to improve the systemic problems of the child's environment, housing, and family life to return a child to a healthy living place.

      Vera started raising money by raffling things from her home. After getting 117 letters with negative responses asking for financial support and grants from all over the world, the biggest breakthroughs came when Renascer began to develop a fast-growing partnership network with Ashoka, Avina, Skoll, Schwab, and PATH. The organization has found its greatest ability to save children’s lives by creating analytical measurements of impact. On a family-by-family basis, Renascer pairs a mother or family with a trained volunteer caseworker to cover all five areas of their own “Action Plan”: health, income, housing, education, and citizenship.
      Renascer works with administrative volunteers, construction workers, psychologists, vocational teachers, pediatricians, lawyers, and general physicians to offer comprehensive plans with assistance, medication, and support. But with a budget of $1 million a year, Renascer does not go deep into all five areas; rather it builds partnerships with other organizations that have specializations in each, while leveraging Renascer’s  impact through corporate sponsorships and marketing.
       A 2004 poll taken of 200 families indicated a 63% reduction in hospital readmissions. Renascer has offered more than 1,700 courses in its five areas of focus. It will add thirteen new centers by the end of 2008.

    

     In The Tactics of Hope, you can learn more about Vera’s journey, in her own words, and how Saude Crianca Renascer developed from its earliest beginnings in a horse stable to full-scale operations in hospitals.