Panel SA: Work program for refugees has already employed 790 Venezuelans

The program of the non-governmental organization AVSI (Volunteers Association for the International Service Brazil) for the reception of Venezuelan refugees has sent, in the last four years, 796 people to formal jobs in private companies.

The entity has been operating in Pacaraima and Boa Vista, in Roraima, since 2018, when the flow of immigrants from the neighboring country intensified as a result of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela. After a pilot in Bahia, AVSI created the project “Welcome through work”.

“We noticed the lack of this step beyond the assistance of the humanitarian emergency. Today the heart of the program is the insertion through work”, says Thais Braga, manager of the entity.

The project has already sent 1,683 Venezuelan citizens who arrived in Brazil through the border to nine Brazilian states.

Casa&Vídeo, a retailer with a strong presence in Rio, recently hired ten Venezuelans for its distribution center in Queimados, in the capital’s metropolitan region. They have Portuguese classes and their managers Spanish.

“HR tends to think that this [contratar refugiados] it’s complicated, but there are groups like AVSI that help, it’s something accessible even in small companies”, says Marcia Lassance, director of People & Management at the company.

Joana Cunha with Andressa Motter and Fernanda Brigatti