Instituto Alana (Alana Institute)

Instituto Alana (Alana Institute) is a non-profit organization created in 1994 with the mission of fostering and promoting social work, education, culture, protection and support for the population in general, and a view at dignifying human beings and improving their quality of life, turning them into conscious actors of their own development and that of their families and community in general, without distinction of race, color, political or religious beliefs.

It is also the institute’s concern to develop activities to protect children and adolescents’ rights in their relations with consumption in general, against the excessive commercialism they are exposed to.

Born of a social initiative by individuals, the Institute has a professional structure and management, and runs two main projects to fulfill its mission: Espaço Alana and Criança e Consumo (Children and Consumerism).

The institute does not intent to fill in all the gaps left by the Government in their attention to needy communities. Actually it is stated in our goals our aim to provide help to the communities in which we act so that they are able to claim as a group for services and aid they are entitled to, thus exercising their full citizenship. At the same time, at Espaço Alana, activities are offered to complement and add to public actions in education, culture and health.

Likewise, it is not the institute’s aim to put an end to all commercial practices. Nevertheless, it pursues a change of paradigm in society, and proposes different consumption relations that empower humanistic values, so underestimated nowadays. Through the Projeto Criança e Consumo (Children and Consumerism Project) we introduce debates on citizenship, social engagement, and well-being, offering critical information to parents and educators, informing them about the harms caused by immoderate child and adolescent commercialism.

Board of Directors

President: Ana Lucia de Mattos Barretto Villela
Vice-President: Alfredo Egydio Arruda Villela Filho
Vice-President: Marcos Bessa Nisti
Treasure: Daniel Vieira da Costa

Consultant Council

The Consultant Council’s main responsibility is to advise the Instituto on its mission, views and guidelines, proposing new lines of actions to the team. This way, the Council helps us all follow a common denominator in our activities in compliance with what is displayed in the Instituto’s Bylaws. The group includes:

Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo (Frei Betto)
Claudia Leme Ferreira Davis
Maria Lúcia Zoega de Souza

Fiscal Council

The Fiscal Council is in charge of following up, examining, and supervising all the Institute’s financial and assets operations
The Institute’s fiscal advisors are:

Alberto Dias de Mattos Barretto
Cláudio Lins Ventura
Eduardo Marchetti Rios
Henri Penchas

II International Forum for Children and Consumerism

The content of the II International Forum for Child and Commercialism that took place in São Paulo, on September 23 to 25, 2008 is already available at the site www.forumcec.org.br

Attended by educators, psychologists, philosophers, and researchers, the II International Forum for Children and Consumerism proposed a reflection on child consumerism and its social, economic and environmental impacts. The most debated issues were connected to the interaction between children, consumption and media, the role of education, and the need for marketing communication regulations in Brazil.