Odebrecht Foundation – Educating for life, through work and for values.

Created in 1965, the Odebrecht Foundation is a private, non-profit organization supported by the Odebrecht Group. Since 1988, the Foundation has been fulfilling its mission of contributing to promote youths’ education for life, aiming at their development as responsible, aware, productive, participatory and concerned citizens.

In 2003, the Odebrecht Foundation chose the region of the Southern Lowlands in Bahia as the central focus of its performance and created the Program for the Integrated and Sustainable Regional Development of the Southern Lowlands - DIS Southern Lowlands. The projects that integrate the DIS aim at developing the locations that benefit from them, promoting employment and income opportunities (productive capital), access to education of quality (human capital) and environmental preservation (environmental capital), as well as shaping a fairer and more egalitarian society (social capital).

The consolidation of a replicable model of integrated production for the small producers located in the environmental protection areas, based on the sustainable management of their natural resources, is a dream that has come true in the Southern Lowlands. The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the United Nations (UN) became partners of the Program, after identifying in this experience an opportunity to fight against poverty and social inequality, besides contributing to reduce the involuntary migration.