Instituto Rodrigo Mendes – Endowment Campaign

Instituto Rodrigo Mendes

Children and adolescents living with disabilities have the right to study in mainstream schools

IRM is a non-profit organization established in 1994 in the city of São Paulo. Its mission is to ensure that people with disabilities have access to quality education in mainstream schools, which is a great challenge.

The World Health Organization estimates that 15% of the world’s population has some kind of disability, which represents more than 1 billion people worldwide and 30 million people in Brazil. Only 2.9% of children with disabilities are enrolled in elementary schools, a percentage that progressively decreases reaching only 0.8% in high school. This illustrates the severe degree of exclusion still faced by this population.

To help change this statistic, IRM has developed programs focused on research, continuing education and advocacy in the area of inclusive education. Over the last 20 years, IRM has trained 2,240 educators in 22 Brazilian states, impacting more than 1.4 million students in the public school system. The Institute has also developed an information sharing portal (www.diversa.org.br), offering more than 100 articles, 200 inspiring practices and solutions developed, collectively, by its online community. Since 2011, the DIVERSA platform has received 516 thousand visitors from more than 100 countries.

The creation of the Endowment Fund will enable Instituto Rodrigo Mendes to:

• Make its programs viable overtime;
• Expand its programs, reaching a larger number of schools and students.

Impact

1.4 million Students in the public education system benefited
2,240 educators certified
22 Brazilian states have been reached
516 thousand visitors on diversa.org.br

The Endowment Fund is one of the strategies we have developed to achieve our ambitious vision of acting as a global player promoting the right to education of persons living with disabilities.” Rodrigo Hübner Mendes, IRM Superintendent

BrazilFoundation is proud to partner with Insituto Rodrigo Mendes for its Endowment Campaign. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Contributions can be made by check, wire, or stocks. For more information, please contact donorservices@brazilfoundation.org.

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