A new alliance of three Brazilian funders will seek to use collaborative philanthropy to support Quilombolas and Indigenous peoples in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic impacts.

The Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazil Human Rights Fund, and the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund have all separately worked on social philanthropy but hope their alliance will be able to advance work further. The alliance has initially committed 2.5 million Brazilian Real ($450,000).

‘It is not possible… to continue believing that Indigenous peoples and Quilombolas should defend the Amazonia at the cost of their own lives, without Brazilian investments, relying on resources from abroad. The only way to protect the Amazon and biomes vital to the planetary balance is to invest in those populations, the true guardians of the Amazon, a biome of the greatest importance for the balance of life on the earth,’ said Maria Amália of the Casa Fund also, urging investors and philanthropists to support the initiative.

The now-formalised alliance builds upon emergency work the three funds had undertaken in 2020 to reduce Covid-19 impacts. Those actions strengthened the collaboration among peers to enhance strategies for promoting social justice in the country.

‘In the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, all funds, and our three funds in particular, started implementing emergency actions. The process of initiating calls for emergency projects made us more connected, closer together, actively listening to understand community demands. We have this expertise. That is why we want to make this Alliance more robust,’ said Baobá Fund executive director Selma Moreira.

The funding alliance has a management committee in charge of raising funds, and can be reached at the following emails: alianca@baoba.org.br, alianca@fundobrasil.org.br, and alianca@casa.org.br.