BASF, LinkedIn, Natura and Visa are training and placing transgender people in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – BASF, LinkedIn, Natura, and Visa are teaming up in Brazil for a good cause. Together they intend to promote the social inclusion of trans and transvestite people through work, culture, health, and well-being.

The initiative is called “Somos Mais fortes em conjunto” (SOMA), and will run a 10-week training and development course. Initially, support will benefit transgender and transvestite women living in the Casa Florescer Special Shelter Center in São Paulo.

“We want to support these people developing through self-awareness, receiving practical tools, awakening a sense of autonomy and belonging. And there is also the possibility of involving our partner ecosystem, expanding the program’s potential,” says BASF’s coordinator at the Center for Scientific and Digital Experiences Carlos Henrique Almeida.

The trans population is the most affected group by prejudice and violence related to gender identity and sexual orientation: life expectancy is 35 years in Brazil, the country that most kills transsexuals in the world for 12 consecutive years, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring. In addition, 90% of these women live marginalized lives and resort to informal work to survive, including prostitution.

SOMA’s initiatives will mostly provide virtual content and dynamics, shared online to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and to respect the learning time of each participant.

Read also: Transvestite attack in Brazil’s Recife results in severe burns and arm amputation

Participants will also be given support in finding opportunities in the job market, including individual mentoring with the companies’ affinity groups. At the end of the development journey, participants are expected to have all the tools they need to plan their careers.

More than 11 months were spent preparing, researching, and talking to the residents of Casa Florescer, who helped create the content, pointing out topics and points of interest.

Startup Wakanda Educação was invited to design the inclusive educational method, translating the content into a language more familiar to the participants.

Learning

The learning journey was built based on four pillars of knowledge: Amiability (culture, health, and self-care); Self-Management (introduction to computers, financial education, math, and creative writing), Socialization (effective communication, fashion, sales technique, first résumé, and first interview), and Emotional Resilience (wheel of life, mindfulness, psychology of happiness, and empowerment).

BASF also contributed with the ChatClass tool, an app that will provide support to the participants and enable the content to be learned according to each one’s time, respecting their individuality.

According to Gabriel Joseph, leader of LinkedIn’s diversity committee, this program was born from this group’s wish to support transgender and transvestite women in their day-to-day challenges. “LinkedIn comes in with the work pillar, contributing with content to understand the corporate and entrepreneurial market to help them enter a market that, unfortunately, still does not reflect diversity.”

Milena Buosi, Natura&Co Latin America’s diversity and inclusion manager, says the company can help rescue the citizenship and self-esteem of a population. “Our Diversity Appreciation Policy establishes awareness and education initiatives to engage employees in living a culture of inclusion on a daily basis. It is the dialogue spaces with trans female employees that guide the design of these journeys.”

Finally, Visa wants to help with their financial planning. “We are very proud to have contributed to build these initiatives from scratch and we are looking forward to the transformations we can promote in the lives of these women,” says Gustavo Turkey, Visa do Brasil’s director.

Graphic artist Camila Gondo, was responsible for the program’s visual identity, taking part in hearings and bringing the transformation proposal of nature in harmony with the colors of the trans flag (blue, white and pink).

Source: exame