Social Action and Cultural Action
Odebrecht was one of the first business organizations in Brazil to engage in corporate citizenship, voluntarily contributing to the social and cultural development of its local communities.

In the sphere of social action, its contributions began in 1965 through the creation of the Odebrecht Foundation. In the cultural sphere, Odebrecht’s participation dates back to 1959, when it sponsored the publication of its first cultural work, Homage to Historic Bahia, by historian José Valladares.

The late 1950s brought Odebrecht an opportunity to work in the cultural sector. Historian José Valladares proposed that Norberto Odebrecht sponsor his book Homage to Historic Bahia, a study of the city of Salvador’s historic buildings. He wanted to recount the city’s history through its architecture, which included some fabulous groupings of tremendous artistic value, believing that this study would encourage their preservation. Norberto Odebrecht agreed and the book was published in 1959, marking the beginning of Odebrecht’s cultural contribution program.

Over the course of the following decades, this program sponsored cultural initiatives involving a wide range of themes and authors. They document cities and regions such as Arequipa, Belo Horizonte, Fernando de Noronha, Ouro Preto, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. Through the artistic expression of Brazil’s greatest creators, including Tarsila do Amaral, Carybé, Tom Jobim, Villa-Lobos, Portinari and Dorival Caymmi, they provide an in-depth understanding of Brazil. The nation’s leading researchers, among them art critic and historian Clarival do Prado Valladares, have scoured the archives of institutions and libraries to enrich our knowledge of Brazilian history. Brazil has been reappraised and its memory preserved: Jesuit missionary José de Anchieta, the Benedictine Monastery in Bahia, the Armed Forces, the Foreign Ministry’s map collection, and the country’s flora and fauna in the 18th century.

A partnership with the Banco do Brasil established in 1997 made it possible to carry out the Memory Project, which paid tribute to illustrious figures and important events in Brazilian history, such as poet Castro Alves, writer Monteiro Lobato, jurist Rui Barbosa and, in the year 2000, the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, as part of the celebrations marking the Discovery of Brazil.

Another milestone took place in the mid-1960s. When Norberto Odebrecht realized that his company’s members needed to have benefits that the nation’s Social Security system did not provide, or only partially covered, the Group’s founder did not hesitate: in 1965, he created the Odebrecht Foundation for that very purpose.Another milestone took place in the mid-1960s. When Norberto Odebrecht realized that his company’s members needed to have benefits that the nation’s Social Security system did not provide, or only partially covered, the Group’s founder did not hesitate: in 1965, he created the Odebrecht Foundation for that very purpose.

In the ensuing years, the Group’s subsidiaries began taking responsibility for providing those benefits directly to their members. By 1988, the Odebrecht Foundation had changed the focus of its operations. The awareness that adolescence is the time when people cement and develop the values and ideas that determine their future adult lives and shape them as individuals led the Foundation to concentrate on preparing adolescents for life.

By 2000, the Foundation had worked with and benefited the lives of 500,000 adolescents and 12,000 educators in several Brazilian states. That same year, while continuing to focus on the priority established in 1988, the institution began concentrating on areas with low human development indexes that were located outside the dynamic hub of the nation’s economy.

Now, as it is about to mark its 40th anniversary in 2005, the Odebrecht Foundation is working in the Southern Lowlands of Bahia, a region that has one of the worst human development indexes and receives some of the lowest social investments in Brazil. There, the Foundation’s main initiative is the Program for the Integrated and Sustainable Development of the Southern Lowlands, which focuses on developing the productive, human, social and environmental capital of the region and valuing the concept of the family unit, which prioritizes not only adolescents but their integration with their families.

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