H360 signs cooperation agreement with UEMA and opens Tereza store in São Luís

On May 30th, in São Luís, Maranhão, the Humanitas360 Institute signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement with the UEMA Agency for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Institutional Relations – Marandu. On the occasion, the president of H360, Patrícia Villela Marino, and the dean of the State University of Maranhão, Walter Canales Sant’Ana, celebrated the partnership, which combines the efforts of civil society and public education for a better and fairer future.

The signing marked the inauguration of a Tereza store and workshop, which occupies a room in the headquarters of the Marandu Agency in the historic downtown area of the capital of Maranhão. The social business Tereza sells handcrafted products made by imprisoned women, former prisoners, and victims of domestic violence. These are items like the ones produced in the social cooperative created by the Humanitas360 Institute at the Women’s Prison Unit of the Pedrinhas Complex, in São Luís. With the new space, H360’s impact in Maranhão expands to include women who have left prison.

“The partnership documented today represents a movement. The movement to unify organized civil society – whether in the third sector or through private initiative – with the public university, thus making us fundamental links of democracy and human and economic development, in this order, as well as the promotion of peace and justice,” said Patrícia Villela Marino, president of H360, in a speech after the signing of the term.

For Walter Canales Sant’Ana, “the inauguration of this new space will allow people deprived of liberty and people who left the prison system to have the chance to have their lives transformed, creating products that can be put on sale to generate income”.

See more photos of the inauguration below: