It took place in São Paulo on Thursday (8/8) the Sim Yes to Racial Equality 2019, promoted every year by the team of the Brazilian Identities Institute (ID_BR), with a program full of panels and debates addressing different issues of the struggle for racial equality, such as inclusion and opportunities for black professionals in the labor market, entrepreneurship, financial empowerment, political awareness, contributions of technology to inclusion and anti-racist narratives in the audiovisual. The program also included shows and the presence of activists and personalities linked to the cause, sharing their stories, in addition to the presence of companies, with Aegea being one of the highlights.

Aegea had a booth to interact with the public, presenting the pillars of its racial equality project, Respect Dá Tom, and also took the opportunity to set up a bank of CVs for black candidates. In addition, Hamilton Amadeo, CEO of the company, had the opportunity to participate in the panel “Race and Labor Market”, alongside Eduardo Santos, CEO of Education First, and Daniela Falcão, Director of EGCN (Vogue, Casa Vogue, GQ and Glamor), with the mediation of Luana Génot – founder of ID_BR and author of the book “Yes to Racial Equality – Race and Labor Market”.

On the occasion, Amadeo spoke about the actions that Aegea has implemented with the consultative support of ID_BR, in order to promote the debate, sensitize new actors to the movement for racial equality inside and outside the company. In addition, he explained how the company has sought to improve its internal policies to expand career opportunities for black or brown professionals, so that the company’s workforce reflects the ethnic-racial diversity of each of the cities where sanitation operates.

Beatriz Raymundo – who leads the Respect Dá Tom Tom program within the company and coordinates activities by the regional committees, which are focused on conducting debates and actions with employees – participated in the panel promoted by 99.Jobs, in which companies counted with a minute and a half to present the opportunities offered to black professionals and to convince the large public present to be interested in the respective companies.

“Companies must take an active role in this change. Aegea increasingly wants to contribute to the cause, listen and learn from engaged people and share their experiences, each contributing to the increase of this mobilization network for the cause of racial equality ”, emphasizes Hamilton Amadeo.