Casa Arte Vida is an award-winning organization established by artist and philanthropist Ana Carolina Affonso. At the end of 2024, it was granted its sixth consecutive recognition by the “Best NGOs Awards,” Brazil’s most prominent third-sector award. Learn more about Brazil’s “Best NGOs Awards” and Casa Arte Vida, a Rio-based NGO that serves young people and their families through education.
About the “Best NGOs Awards”
Two important institutes promote the “Best NGOs Awards” annually to evaluate and determine the 100 best NGOs working in Brazil. There are over 800,000 non-profit Brazilian associations and foundations currently serving the society, and the Awards allow free participation of these institutions.
By recognizing the work done by the best NGOs in Brazil, the Awards foster good practices in organizations’ governance, transparency, communication, and financing.
The methodology for evaluating the organizations includes a technical and objective analysis of five great areas:
- Cause and Activity Strategy
- Representation and Responsibility
- Management and Planning
- Financing Strategy
- Communication and Accountability.
A sustainable financing strategy, for instance, is essential to becoming one of the 100 best NGOs in Brazil. According to the Awards website, 98% of the awarded institutions have a system or a hyperlink on their websites for requesting donations. These NGOs also have at least one employee who works exclusively in fundraising activities.
Ana Carolina Affonso’s Casa Arte Vida is one of these NGOs. Besides having one employee completely dedicated to fundraising, it also hosts a “How to help” link on its website, where donors can easily contribute to the lives of young people in underserved communities.
Beyond the broader category that awards the 100 best NGOs working in Brazil, the Awards also feature special categories. For instance, the best small NGOs category honors only 10 organizations with an annual revenue of up to R$500,000 (or around US$85,000). Ana Carolina Affonso’s Casa Arte Vida has also received the best small NGOs award, being part of the 10 best small organizations in the country.
Ana Carolina Affonso’s Casa Arte Vida is the NGO for education in Brazil
Casa Arte Vida (House Art Life, in English) is a non-profit organization dedicated to working toward and improving Rio’s favelas. It serves the community of Pedra de Guaratiba, one of the poorest regions in Rio de Janeiro’s metropolitan area. The NGO was established by artist and executive Ana Carolina Borges Torrealba Affonso to provide inclusive and multidisciplinary education to children, teenagers, and young adults.
The projects offered at Casa Arte Vida combine innovation and creativity. Because its founder believes in the power of extracurricular activities, the organization provides a safe environment for children after school and a supplemental education site to help young people in the areas of technology, finance, arts, and entrepreneurship.
The complementary education program, for example, promotes socio-educational activities outside of school hours that encompass multiple intelligences and use active methodologies, such as the Pedagogy of Autonomy – education model that inspires Ana Carolina Affonso’s Casa Arte Vida. Other notable projects and programs include the Creativity, Robotics, Innovation, and Art (CRIA) project, Maker Lab, and Future Express.
Casa Arte Vida has several activities that integrate school, family, and community. One example is the organization’s family promotion program, which articulates several distinct actions to strengthen family ties with a team of psychologists, social assistants, and teachers.
These programs have greatly impacted the local community, especially the children living in Pedra de Guaratiba. According to the 2023 report published on Casa Arte Vida’s website, 98% of the children supported by the NGO strengthened their creative skills with the complementary education project that year. Also, 68% of them maintained above-average results in school that year, and 85% of them enhanced their reading skills.
Casa Arte Vida and the “Best NGOs Awards”
Casa Arte Vida has a long history of awards for the services it has provided to the community in the Guaratiba region since 2007. Every year since 2019, Ana Carolina Affonso’s organization has been considered one of the best 100 NGOs in Brazil.
In 2020, the “Best NGOs Awards” launched a new category that recognizes the ten best small organizations in Brazil. Casa Arte Vida was among the first organizations awarded in this category, being considered one of the NGOs that do a lot of work with few resources.
At the time, Casa Arte Vida educator Roberta Macedo was quoted on the “Best NGOs Awards” website, stating that the award, “with the distinction of being among the ten best small-sized organizations, brought us visibility and even more credibility in the work we do. […] Another recognition that we are on the right path, despite all the difficulties.”
The initiatives and projects promoted by Casa Arte Vida, such as the Woman Citizen Project in Ana Carolina Affonso’s NGO, have earned the organization several awards besides the “Best NGOs Awards”, such as the Itau-UNICEF Award from the Itau Social UNICEF Program.
About the Founder of Casa Arte Vida – Ana Carolina Affonso
A Brazilian lawyer and philanthropist, Ana Carolina Borges Torrealba Affonso founded Casa Arte Vida in 2007 to provide educational opportunities to young people living in vulnerable socioeconomic situations. Before that, she was a hotel manager and a museum curator at global institutions.
Currently, Torrealba works with ceramics and tile painting in her studio located in Cascais, Portugal. Her lengthy background in the arts encouraged Ana Carolina Affonso to combine her passion for the arts with the desire to make education accessible, culminating in the creation of Casa Arte Vida.
Ana Torrealba’s organization has, since its establishment, been honored with renowned awards, such as the “Best NGOs Awards.” In addition, Casa Arte Vida has been establishing important partnerships with the Brazilian government and other national agencies and institutions, which have already resulted in training and qualification programs.
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