W06 Essay: Root Cause & Impact - What sort of a mother are you

 

Fabrice Tshiyoyi Banyingela

Professor Brittany James

Social Innovation

6 May 2021

W06 Essay: Root Cause & Impact

Vera Cordeiro is a social entrepreneur as well as a professional physician who founded the Asociacao Saude Crianca Renascer (Rebirth: Association for Children's Health), with the aim to extend care to poor children after they are discharged from public hospitals. The hospital faced many recurring treatments of children. Many of the cycles of treatments that patients came to the Hospital da Lagoa with was often persistent reoccurrences disease such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, anemia, birth defects, or ailments. And the cause of these challenges was poverty which she describes as not only a lack of money but a lack of a sense of meaning.  Seeing the children get discharged from the hospital and returning sick again weeks later broke her heart. She said, “I could not stand to go one more day seeing children locked in this cycle of hospitalization, re-hospitalization, and death.”

On October 25, 1991, she incorporated Renascer for the purpose of her vision. Got assistance from volunteers to retired professionals such as psychologist Martha Scodro and the accountant Regina Milanez. In a small office’s wall is written a quote by Goethe stating “Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it now. Boldness is genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” This wonderful quotation was a pivotal step to her commitment to the enterprise. Cordeiro certainly lived up to that quotation in her life and displays an amazing determination and love for the children and their families that lived in the slums. She was able to put her city in order and change the lives of thousands. She could have waited longer for the government to rescue those children, or listen to the naysayers such as the hospital’ social workers who fought her policy of working with underqualified staff. Instead, she saw an opportunity to help her community. It was never about her. It was always about the emerging conditions of her community. She used all her natural resources (intelligence) to start an organization that went from a small location to becoming a national source of help. Goethe’s statement is a positive trigger to all entrepreneurs to understand that tomorrow begins today and procrastination should not be part of our thoughts even though we all might be procrastinators to some degree at some point in our life because of our workload. Like Cordeiro who also was extremely busy, we should start avoiding procrastination by learning how to manage our time wisely, maintaining a balance, and staying focus with boldness. 

As the organization planned to expand, Cordeiro agreed to Anamaria Schindler’s advice to accept at no cost to partner with McKinsey and company. The consulting company spent weeks looking at all aspects by interviewing employees and looked at all aspects to help improve Renascer. McKinsey revolutionized Renascer in so many ways such as the creation of a new company position (Chief Executive Office), upgrade the initial proposal plan of $50,000 to a $250,000 Strategic plan to be funded by the bank, develop a database, delineate three divisions, and more. Renascer improved financially, opened a second office, and received international recognition. All thanks to one entrepreneur’s vision. One idea that changed the world for the better.