EAESP students help residents of Heliópolis become entrepreneurs

Eighteen undergraduate students of São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV/EAESP) visited the community of Heliópolis to map local needs and suggest businesses that could generate income and bring other benefits to the locality. The social project is part of the course Business with Social Impact, taught by professor Edgard Barki.The first phase of the activity lasted a week and consisted of collecting data through interviews. The proposal is to remove the walls that exist in society and bring together young people from different realities in a joint activity, says professor Barki in an interview to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo.He also pointed out that the contact among young people of different realities produces new opportunities to think and see the world, which can be confirmed by the testimonial given by both residents and FGV students. Change doesn't happen in a week, but we've ended this experience more critical and more ready for action. Now we can be agents of change to bring about the transformation, says the student of Public Administration, Luisa Coutinho.The educator Régis Foge Jacinto from Heliópolis, says that the experience also helps to dissolve preconceived ideas. They (FGV students) thought that Heliópolis was still only a shanty town, with high crime rates and no businesses, he said.In the first half of this year, Professor Edgard Barki also took the students of the professional masters in International Management of the School to the community of Heliópolis. As they attended the Corporate Business course, the students helped residents to boost six small businesses.At the time, Artemisia and Coca-Cola also participated in the initiative of the professional master's degree, which sponsors social transformation projects in the same community.








