SOCIAL RESPONSE

“Decisions were made very quickly, and everything was put together in a week. We couldn’t possibly have planned for a situation such as this”. The statement is Elisa Paglia’s, 16, who learned firsthand about social response when parents and students team up with Sabrina Steyer, dean of the Secondary Division, and the teachers Rui Zanchetta and Ana Paula Giorgi in putting Avenues São Paulo’s 3D printers to their best use: making masks to fend off Covid 19 contamination. Along with this effort, the team started to produce 2 types of face shields (used by health workers; and receptionists, e.g.) and handmade simple face masks. “This project allowed me to feel active and empowered. My house was turned into a mask factory”, adds Elisa, whose team was responsible for raising R$ 110,000 (approx. USD$ 20,000).

One of several Social Response projects created at Avenues during the pandemic, Máscaras 3D delivered over 150,000 masks to 8 communities in São Paulo and 108 health institutions across the country, including communities in the Amazon through a partnership with Vaga Lume Association, to address one of the most affected and isolated regions in Brazil. Working together at full speed were 30 partners, 200 Avenues’ families and friends, and 30 seamstresses from neighboring communities, who were able to generate income and produce the masks needed for their own community’s protection.