ANNUAL REPORT 2021 DESIDERATA

Introduction

In 2021, amid all the challenges brought by the second year of the pandemic, we celebrated 18 years of developing and strengthening public health policies to promote healthier lives for children and adolescents. Since its creation, the Desiderata Institute has championed this as the best strategy to reach more families in a just and egalitarian way. The achieved results make us confident about taking the first steps to expand our operations beyond Rio de Janeiro, where our history began.

Our pioneering project, the Unidos pela Cura (UPC), a strategy to promote early diagnosis of childhood cancer, which brings together managers from the Brazilian Public Health System and specialized hospitals, and civil society organizations, began its journey to reach other Brazilian states this year. Until 2021, more than 2,400 pediatric patients were cared for in Rio. Our goal is for this successful initiative to spread so that more and more children will have greater chances of being cured. An important first step in this direction was the launch of the UPC Guide, a manual for health managers who wish to implement this strategy in their own municipalities.

Childhood cancer care is in Desiderata's DNA, and to further expand discussion on the matter, we held the 6th Pediatric Oncology Forum. In its first online version, the forum reached hundreds of participants from all over Brazil, consolidating itself as a strategic space for discussion and proposition of public policies on the subject at a national level.

The use of virtual spaces and tools, accelerated by remote work, proved to be opportune not only to mobilize specialists and those interested in our causes, but also to expand our training of primary care professionals. To strengthen early diagnosis of cancer and the prevention and care of obesity in children and adolescents, we launched an online learning platform, offering a free course on each subject to these health professionals. The information obtained from the first classes is being used to improve student experience in the course and expand its reach to other municipalities, following our practice of evidence-based decision-making.

On our opening legislative advocacy actions, we attained a significant victory in Rio’s City Council, with the approval in its first voting round of a bill that implements measures to contain the growing rates of childhood obesity in the municipality. The political discussions and advocacy campaign promoted by Desiderata in favor of the bill, with the active involvement of our Board of Directors, were fundamental to promote public debate about this topic. The launch of the Online Panorama on Obesity in Children and Adolescents also supported our strategy of disseminating information to support data-driven policymaking.

These developments, among many others listed in this annual report, helped us consolidate ourselves as relevant actors in the public health scenario. Amid the difficulties brought about by the pandemic, we strengthened our institution, our practices, and the results of our work, which you can see in more detail in the following sections.

We wish you a good read!
Mark Essle, President of the Board of Directors
Desiderata team

Message from the Executive Director

In 2021, when Desiderata turned 18 years, it was very clear to me that it was the end of a cycle and the start of a new one. Little did I know that such a remarkable year would be my last one at the Institute. I walk away so proud of the work we were able to put in together.

It was at Desiderata that I learned how to think about social investment strategically, getting closer to public health policies, which I believe are the best way for us to build a healthier and fairer country.

I was part of the history of this organization for 16 and a half years, 11 of them as executive director. Those years get mixed up with the history of Desiderata itself, an organization that started out with a team of three people and now boasts 20 members of a team that is cohesive, dedicated, competent, and highly committed and that has contributed so much to the results achieved not only in 2021, but throughout this journey.

Despite all the daily challenges posed to public health, in oncology, we have managed, through Unidos pela Cura, to shorten the time for the referral of children suspected of cancer seen in primary healthcare units. We have also trained over 4,500 health professionals for the detection of the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer, which are crucial for an early diagnosis – and now we have made progress with the online learning format, reaching a larger number of professionals. We have also carried out 10 infrastructure projects for qualification of services and treatment at specialized hospitals, gaining nationwide recognition with the Forum and Panorama on Pediatric Oncology, and international prominence with the Union for the International Cancer Control (UICC) and Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.

Created only 3 years ago, the Child and Adolescent Obesity area has already become a benchmark, commanding attention to this serious public health problem through communication campaigns and dissemination of evidence-based information. On our path towards strengthening public health in order to generate a positive impact on the lives of even more children, we have designed patient trajectories for proper treatment of children and adolescents with obesity in the public health system and advocacy of initiatives put forward by the legislative branch targeted at guaranteeing children’s nutrition and making them healthier.

All of these breakthroughs have been possible because we have also expanded and diversified our funding sources in the past few years, attracting supporters that have been key to our development and implementation of our projects. In the meantime, we have strengthened communication, a department that has grown in strategic importance, allowing us to fulfill our mission.

I feel Desiderata is ready to maintain its growth trend and is also prepared to expand into other states in Brazil, turning into a benchmark in the areas in which it operates, mainly in the strengthening of the public sector, which is paramount to make our dream come true: having Brazilian children among the healthiest around the globe.

Now in the first half of 2022, I would like to share with you my enormous gratitude for this opportunity in my professional life and the sense of fulfillment from having been a part of an organization that plays a crucial role in child health. I also wish Mrs. Renata Couto, the new director, and the whole team tremendous success. May Desiderata soar ever higher!

Roberta Costa Marques,
Executive Director