Grupo Boticário, BP Bunge, and Positivo donate 30,000 litres of alcohol to 50 hospitals from North to South in Brazil

Boticário, BP Bunge Bioenergia, and Instituto Positivo got togetherin a solidarity partnership to provide 30,000 litres of liquid alcohol to hospitals in nine states in Brazil, starting in the last week of September. This cooperation included the supply of 70% alcohol by BP Bunge, a financial contribution from Instituto Positivo, and the bottling of the products by Grupo Boticário. The coalition allowed the production of 350,000 bottles of alcohol that will be distributed to around 50 hospitals in nine states (Amazonas, Ceará, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Tocantins). This action also includes a partnership with the health secretariats of four of these states – Amazonas, Ceará, Pernambuco, and Rio Grande do Norte.

Since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across Brazil, Grupo Boticário has worked to ensure the largest number of partnerships to provide hygiene items to vulnerable populations all over the country. The alliance with Central Única das Favelas (CUFA) and other initiatives such as Gerando Falcões and União Rio ensured that the 216 tons of hygiene items produced by Grupo Boticário reached all Brazilian states.

“Throughout this turbulent period, one of the lessons we have all learned is that cooperation is the best way to overcome barriers. For this reason, having partners such as BP Bunge and Instituto Positivo on our side to leverage our reach and help so many people is extremely important. Only with this spirit among companies in favour of society will we be able to go through this global health crisis and help build a more just and aware country”, says Eduardo Fonseca, Director of Institutional Affairs at Grupo Boticário.

With this same spirit, BP Bunge Bioenergia has promoted partnerships and participated in campaigns that expanded the results of its individual actions during this pandemic, which include the donation of more than 266,000 litres of alcohol to communities, hospitals, organizations, and government entities. The largest one, União da Indústria de Cana-de-Açúcar (UNICA) – the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association – had the support of dozens of mills to donate more than one million litres of 70% alcohol to communities in six states in Brazil. In the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the company participated in a campaign carried out by Biosul, Federação das Indústrias and the local SENAI (the Brazilian National Service for Industrial Training) to donate around 36,000 face masks to protect the population. It also participated in 70% alcohol donation campaigns promoted by Siamig and Sifaeg, the unions that represent the sugar-energy industry in Minas Gerais and Goiás, respectively.

“Having the support of these great partners, such as O Boticário and Instituto Positivo, in this action for the donation of 70% alcohol gives us the certainty that our efforts to help people prevent against COVID-19 will have much more potential of being successful. Actions like this, which mobilize companies, engage entities, and involve governments, are certainly contributing to our return to normalcy as soon as possible,” says Mara Pinheiro, Director of Communications and Institutional Relations, BP Bunge Bioenergia.

Grupo Positivo, through Instituto Positivo, donated more than BRL 650,000 to contribute to actions to combat COVID-19. Its main effort was to enable and financially invest in the “O Amor Contagia” (“Love is Infectious”) campaign, headed by a coalition of relevant private and public institutions in the State of Paraná, such as the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Paraná and the Public Ministry of Labour.

This campaign has already benefited more than 130 social institutions and 29 hospitals in Paraná. For the Director of Instituto Positivo, Eliziane Gorniak, this moment made companies turn their eyes to social actions. “During this exceptional moment brought by the pandemic, it has been important to think about different ways to contribute, build coalitions, and meet the needs of the communities. Thus, this partnership with Boticário and BP Bunge was an excellent opportunity to combine the efforts of organizations that work in such different areas, but still have something in common – the purpose of protecting what is most valuable to us: our lives,” she says.

Eliziane warns that, while the pandemic continues to claim many victims, donations have been dropping sharply in Brazil since June. According to a survey carried out by the Brazilian Association of Fundraisers (Associação Brasileira de Captadores de Recursos – ABCR), donations to combat COVID-19 in Brazil have already exceeded BRL 6 billion. With a total of 492,710 donors, the Association recorded the largest amounts in the months of April and May, but in June and July donations dropped 90%, compared to the average of the two previous months. “The drop in donations was already expected, but as long as the pandemic continues to claim victims, we will need to continue, as a society, to offer our time, talent, and resources, in particular, to serve the most vulnerable population that will continue to need our support”, notes the Director of Instituto Positivo.

About Grupo Boticário

Grupo Boticário comprises several companies, including laboratories, factories, and logistics, marketing, and retail businesses. They have several brands – O Boticário, Eudora, quem disse, berenice?, BeautyBox, Multi B, Vult, and Beleza na Web – which are present in different channels. But they all have one purpose: to create opportunities for beauty to transform the world around us. The beauty that is in the core of Grupo Boticário is materialized not only in Grupo Boticário Foundation – the largest in Brazil –, but also in transformations that positively impact products, operations, channels, and the entire value chain.