Brazil: Reducing Stigma through Public Education
Editor's Note: following is a summary of the webpage of Brazil's Down Syndrome Society, translated by Rosangela Berman Bieler (rbbieler@aol.com)

The Down Syndrome Society (SSD) of Brazil is a nonprofit organization, founded by parents and responsible for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in general. It was organized so that society starts taking notice of these people's potential and to call attention to the real need to open educational and vocational spaces for future opportunities in the job market.

Believing in this, the Sociedade Síndrome de Down has been elaborating, making viable and actively participating in projects related to the cause, all of them seeking society awareness on its role in helping build relationships with people with disabilities. Some of its projects are:

1. 1996 - creation, by DM9DDB Advertising, of the first institutional campaign, totally free of costs for creation, production or dissemination, and transmitted in several television channels reaching throughout the country. The main objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of the potentialities of people with intellectual disabilities.

2. parallel to the campaign, an 800 (cost free) phone line was set up to assist the demand sparked by the campaign.

3. 1996 - project in partnership with the Studio of Maurício of Souza, very well known Brazilian children's cartoonist, for the creation of a child character with Down Syndrome and dissemination through the cartoon stories of his series of magazines;

4. 1998 - creation of a new advertising campaign by DM9DDB, in the same format and with the same objectives of the first campaign of 96, this one also produced free of charge. This campaign won the Bronze Lion Award in Cannes and its creators became Personalities of the Year in recognition of the quality of their product.

5. creation of an online Database of Resources and Research on Disability, in partnership with other sites. It will be a general database containing all the necessary information on: doctors, schools, institutions, therapies, files, films, journalistic matters, etc...

6. creation of a short length film (35mm) on Down Syndrome, intended to avoid the politically correct paternalism and to show that complex reality through a first person experience point of view of an individual with a disability.

Synopsis of the Documentary
"Síndrome de Down" is a short-length film, in 35 mm that will focus on the disabilities, but also the potentialities, of people with this genetic problem that reaches about 8 thousand babies every year in Brazil.

The documentary doesn't intend to highlight existing social prejudices but instead to point to clear and possible roads, optimistic and realistic, having as their target-public the parents of babies with Down Syndrome, doctors, therapists and family soon after the birth.

The documentary intends to show the world from the point of view of a human being with Down, that has a peculiar, funny, sensual, and pleasant vision of life, revealing a perspective of the human species that is being set aside by society in general. "Síndrome de Down" will show, in cinematographic language, the world vision of that being that is frequently seen as an "exceptional".

The film will be exhibited in national and international festivals, but, as it was already said, the target-public is the family of a baby with Down syndrome and all the other social actors, doctors and therapists that have to deal with the impact of an initially undesired birth. Copies of the film in video will be distributed at the main hospitals of the Country, schools, organizations and centers of Down Syndrome Studies and the Associations of Parents throughout the country.

7. 2002 - creation of another advertising campaign / institutional, now in partnership with Giovanni, FCB, created by Cláudio Gatão. The campaign was already produced and it is being transmitted in all TV channels, since April of 2002.

Adolescents Are All the Same in the Campaign of Giovanni, FCB for the Sociedade Síndrome de Down
To reduce the prejudice and to promote a normal life - that's the way that Giovanni, FCB created a new campaign for the Sociedade Síndrome de Down, showing that discrimination is a result of a distorted vision of those who ignore the subject.

The new campaign features the actress Paula Werneck, 15 years old, who has already worked in soap operas and on Brazilian TV series. Besides the film, entitled "Adolescent", the campaign includes announcements on billboards, bus doors and urban furniture.

Using a video-clip format, of 30 seconds, and a version of 45 seconds, the advertising shows "Paulinha" dancing in an accelerated rhythm, style "rock and roll" of the sixties. The girl dances happy, in a high mood and "cool" inside of her house, as any adolescent would behave. The slogan concludes: "To be different is normal".

The campaign of 2002, also created by Giovanni, FCB obtained positive results, mainly in Rio de Janeiro and in São Paulo, where several companies, among them Guaraplus and the net of restaurants La Mole hired people with disabilities as employees.

The creation and creation direction belong to Adilson Xavier and Cristina Amorim. The film was produced by the Zero Filmes, with direction of Sérgio Amon. Sound-track of Tesis.


"Ser diferente é normal" ("To be different is normal")



"Olha Bem Nos Meus Olhos. Você Me Daria Um Emprego?" ("Look right into my eyes. Would you give me a job?")



"There are people that arrive at the beach and stay the whole time staring at me. If they, instead, paid attention to the sea, they would give me less work".

There are people that are still constrained when they are going to the beach and they find Tiago working as a lifeguard. He tries not to feel bad, because he knows that this behavior is hardly ever prompted by cruelty.

It is almost always because of lack of information. A lot of people don't have any idea that people with disabilities live a normal life, no matter what their limitations. They work, they have fun, they do sports. Therefore, do not be concerned with Tiago. Be only concerned about what you think of him.

People with Special Needs are concerned about you.



Decide which Feeling You Want to Have in Relation to this Girl

Friday's Chose to Have Pride!

Mariana is punctual and takes her work seriously. Once in a while a customer looks at her in a weird way, but Mariana lifts her head and goes straight ahead. She is one more example how people with Special Needs can live a normal life, besides their limitations. Don't feel sorry for Mariana. She definitively doesn't need that.

Links for other sites:
Riodown - www.novanet.com.br/riodown
Space 21 - www.ecof.org.br/projetos/down
Federation - federacaosinddown@zaz.com.br
School Carolina Patrício - www.carolinapatricio.com.br