DESIDERATA 2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Introduction

Anyone mindful of life cycles knows how challenging it is to go through remarkable changes. The same applies to organizations. Approaching its second decade in 2022, Desiderata experienced an exceptionally challenging year. We could not be prouder, because 2022 was a year in which Desiderata demonstrated its institutional maturity and ability to confidently confront changes and embrace new challenges more than ever before. All of this was accomplished without compromising its values and the quality of delivery established over the years.

After having been chosen as president of the board in 2021, it was Roberta Costa Marques’ turn to take over and embrace new opportunities. She has been a team member for 18 years, having worked as executive director for 16 years. In June, Renata Couto, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the third sector, assumed the leadership of the institute.

Learning how to close and open cycles is a wisdom that is only acquired over the years, and in 2022, Desiderata proved to be mature enough to face not only the challenges mentioned here, but also all the many others that are part of our growth plans and which we will proudly confront. I am confident that Roberta closed her cycle and feels proud of what she has accomplished so far, and that Renata will also obtain great achievements.

This transition, embraced with commitment and seriousness by Desiderata’s whole team, has allowed us to keep the plans made for the year and to take good advantage of the opportunities that have arisen. Desiderata is an organization with well-defined goals and very noble values. This enabled us, in this atypical and troubled year impacted by the political scenario, to follow the outlined path and to deal with the setbacks in a sober, responsible, and effective manner. And despite all the hindrances, we managed to make important achievements.

A bill we had been supporting in Niterói was approved in December, having become the first Act in the state of Rio de Janeiro to forbid the supply of ultraprocessed foods at schools, making them truly committed to the promotion of proper and healthy nutrition. This was possible because of the collective effort put in by Desiderata and also by more than 20 organizations that supported us throughout the process.

We also remain united in our goal to expand the reach of our work in Pernambuco, where, in an important partnership with the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and with other organizations, we are going to bring our well-established experience ― Unidos pela Cura ― to promote the early diagnosis of childhood cancer. As usual, we, at Desiderata, rely on important partnerships with the public sector and civil society to strengthen public health policies, thus increasing the chances of cure and benefiting as many children and adolescents as possible.

You can find these and other results of our important work in this Annual Report, which we hope will help you better understand the effects and the reach of our unflagging efforts.

We now share with you this year’s main highlights.

Enjoy the reading!
Mark Essle
President of the Board of Directors

Message from the Executive Director

I am Renata Couto and I feel honored to have assumed the leadership of Desiderata Institute in June 2022. I have been working in the management of social organizations for several years and I have always considered Desiderata an institute of paramount importance. The focus of an organization on strengthening public health policies is an audacious philanthropic effort aimed at reaching the largest number of children and adolescents as equitably as possible – an essential initiative in a country such as Brazil, with continental dimensions and huge challenges due to unequally distributed resources.

In my opinion, the role of nonprofit organizations is to work around these challenges. And that’s what Desiderata has been doing since the beginning, when it decided to innovate by seeking to improve the chances of cure of children with cancer and, later on, invest in the prevention of childhood obesity.

The year 2022 was full of achievements and search of new paths. As you read in the previous message from our board president, Mark Essle, we accomplished something really important in Niterói: the approval of the bill that forbids the supply of ultraprocessed foods at schools. Now, our challenge is to have the Act regulated by the executive branch and enforce its effective application. Niterói is the first town in the state of Rio de Janeiro to have an Act of this kind, serving as an example to many others that are also genuinely committed to child health.

This commitment has been demonstrated in different ways. It is commonly known that awareness raising and engagement of primary care professionals are key to the promotion of child health and to the strategies proposed by Desiderata. Bearing that in mind, we also celebrated the expansion of our online learning strategies by offering free-of-charge courses targeted at the training of these professionals. In 2022, 2,294 professionals were trained, and now all of them are prepared to treat children with suspected cancer or at risk of obesity in a more efficient and welcoming manner.

This qualified, alert, and caring approach is a powerful tool we have been employing for 16 years in Rio de Janeiro by means of Unidos pela Cura, a policy for early diagnosis of childhood cancer, in partnership with the public sector and specialized hospitals. In 2022, we had the incredible opportunity to review this strategy together so as to further ameliorate the care of these children in Rio. Concomitantly, in partnership with the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and other organizations, we began the expansion of this initiative into the state of Pernambuco, where we found, just as in Rio, a competent community that is committed to fostering actions that enable the timely diagnosis of a larger number of children, helping achieve high cure rates.

Despite the challenges of formulating public policies in such a chaotic year as 2022, our results demonstrate that the decision to build long-lasting actions is the best way to overcome the challenges of child health in Brazil. There are many steps required for this construction and the results are not immediate, but we are certain that there is no other way for the promotion of a more equitable and efficient health system for children and adolescents in Brazil than through public health. And that is why we keep making every endeavor, and we would like to count on your support.

In this Report, we present our major achievements in 2022. Enjoy!

Renata Couto
Executive Director

Sobre o Desiderata

The Desiderata Institute is a non-profit organization founded in Rio de Janeiro in 2003 with the aim of providing children and adolescents with a healthier life through the early diagnosis and improved treatment of cancer and prevention and care of childhood and adolescent obesity.

We promote integrated solutions to the strengthening of child public health by means of actions that foster public policies focused on childhood and adolescent cancer, including advocacy actions in the legislative and executive branches, awareness campaigns, training of primary healthcare workers, humanization of care in public hospitals, mobilization efforts, coordination, and partnerships with the public and private sectors and with the civil society.

Our mission

To provide solutions that ensure the timely prevention, diagnosis, and treatment regarding the health of children and adolescents.

Our dream

To have Brazilian children and adolescents among the healthiest ones in the world.

Desiderata works according to the following sustainable development goals:

Communication and Public Engagement

Communication, as a strategic axis for the actions of the Desiderata Institute, supports the strategies in programmatic areas and creates contents and campaigns that underscore and broaden the importance of guaranteeing that Brazilian children and adolescents will have the right to health.

Our aim is to establish the health of children and adolescents as a priority on the national agenda for public policy-making and public debate. The Communication area also contributes to strengthening the link with partners and donors, as an attempt to enhance organizational development actions and resource mobilization efforts.

Campaigns

“Niterói says yes to a healthy childhood”

Mobilization campaign, in partnership with the Rio de Janeiro branch of the Alliance for Healthy and Adequate Food, with the aim of engaging the population in support of Bill no. 95/2022. The campaign proposed measures to hold back the growth of childhood obesity in Niterói by promoting healthy nutrition at local schools.

Reach:

Golden September

Awareness campaign targeted at primary healthcare workers in Rio de Janeiro about the importance of the early diagnosis of childhood cancer.

Off-line 800 kits distribuídos para os profissionais de saúde que participaram dos programas de formação do Desiderata e de parceiros

Scientific Publications

Publication of the article entitled “The challenges of front-of-package labeling in Brazil”

in Frontiers in Nutrition, in partnership with the member of the Alliance for Healthy and Adequate Food.

Participation in conferences and events

15^th Rede Unida International Conference:

“The experience of a civil society organization in the fight against childhood and adolescent obesity”; “Panorama on Obesity among Brazilian Children and Adolescents”, “Training programs targeted at the combat of childhood and adolescent cancer and obesity in primary healthcare: the experience of the online learning project by the Desiderata Institute” and presentation of the Panorama of Pediatric Oncology in Brazil, and of the 18th Unidos Pela Cura News Bulletin.

27^th Brazilian Conference on Nutrition:

Participation as panelist in the session “Nutritionist: who are you in the breadline?” and “Panorama of Obesity in Brazilian Children and Adolescents: the importance of health data for monitoring nutritional status”

5^th Showcase of Experiences of the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS) in Food and Nutrition:

“Experience in the prevention and management of childhood and adolescent obesity in Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro, following the National Policy on Food and Nutrition guidelines”.

13^th Brazilian Conference on Collective Health:

“Experience of a public-interest civil society organization in the management of childhood and adolescent obesity in Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro, based on a set of integrated solutions”, “Panorama of obesity in Brazilian children and adolescents: an interactive virtual tool”, “Experience of a civil society organization in health communication targeted at children and adolescents living with obesity: challenges and perspectives", “Adversities in the process of discussing regulatory measures for the promotion of adequate and healthy food in the legislative power of Rio de Janeiro” and “Childhood and adolescent obesity in Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro: a study of health regions for the implementation of patient healthcare trajectories”; “Epidemiological and healthcare diagnosis of childhood and adolescent cancer in Brazil” and “The Unidos pela Cura experience as social technology to increase the chances of cure among children and adolescents with cancer”.

2^nd All Together Against Cancer Forum:

Opening panel, panel moderation “Challenges and Specificities of Comprehensive Care of Adolescents with Cancer” and presentation of the Panorama of Pediatric Oncology in Brazil.

Big Data in Oncology Forum:

Presentation of the Panorama of Pediatric Oncology in Brazil.

54^th Annual Conference of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP 2022):

Poster presentation of the "Unidos Pela Cura Guide: social technology for the early diagnosis of childhood cancer” and “Unidos pela Cura: results of the strategy for the early diagnosis of childhood cancer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”.

4^th All Together Against Cancer Forum – North and Northeast:

Presentation of the Panorama of Pediatric Oncology in Brazil, a selection from the northern and northeastern regions.

Hospital Municipal Jesus inaugura salas humanizadas para crianças com diagnóstico de câncer (Ancelmo Góes - O Globo)

Crianças comem menos feijão e mais ultraprocessados, aponta pesquisa (Bom dia Brasil)

Contra a obesidade infantil, Rio pode proibir alimentos ultraprocessados nas escolas públicas e privadas

Desiderata in the mass media

27/01/2022

12 steps for a healthy diet

TVE Bahia

03/04/2022

Desiderata Institute joins World Obesity

World Obesity Federation

22/03/2022

City Council postpones project that forbids candies, sweets, and soda drinks in schools in the state of Rio de Janeiro

O Globo

11/04/2022

Industry lobby tries to undermine the prohibition of ultraprocessed foods at cafeterias in the state of Rio de Janeiro

O Joio e o Trigo

11/04/2022

School meal spending increases for family farming products in Rio

O Globo, Jornal Extra

22/07/2022

Hospital specialized in cancer diagnosis in Rio now has a humanized care environment

Agência Brasil, UOL Notícias

22/03/2022

Hospital Municipal Jesus inaugurates humanized care facilities for children diagnosed with cancer

Jornal O Globo (Coluna do Ancelmo Gois)

23/07/2022

Hospital Municipal Jesus inaugurates ward decorated with underwater theme

O Dia

02/08/2022

Meio Dia Paraná - Curitiba | Survey shows inflation has increased the number of youths with overweight

Globoplay

11/08/2022

Less beans, more hamburguers

Revista Piauí

15/08/2022

Bom Dia Brasil | Children eat less beans and more ultraprocessed foods, survey shows

Globoplay

05/10/2022

Private support to public hospitals expands high-standard healthcare

O Globo

05/10/2022

Private hospitals support the public sector with management, technology, and infrastructure

Valor Econômico

01/11/2022

Meet our Members - Desiderata Institute Brazil

World Obesity Federation

21/09/2022

Connection Program: early diagnosis of childhood and adolescent cancer

Canal Futura

22/12/2022

2022 in review: Desiderata Institute

World Obesity Federation

Our social networks

Increase by:

218%

65%

2,43%

Partnerships

The Desiderata Institute receives donations from individuals and legal entities (foundations and companies), important partnerships that provide financial support, technical assistance, and service delivery, because they believe in public health as a fundamental principle for the development of children and adolescents.

In 2022, we renewed the partnership between Desiderata and Chevron in the Humanized Care Project by Hospital Municipal Jesus, which will have been implemented by the end of 2023. In addition, we have received funds from two new partners: the Phi Institute, for the development of Patient Healthcare Trajectory in Niterói, and the José Luiz Egydio Setúbal Foundation, for update of the Online Panorama of Childhood Obesity.

The addition of new funders underscores the importance and potential of the partnerships forged by Desiderata.

Our heartfelt gratitude to all our partners!