São Paulo – The firm handshake and easy smile reveal the determination, confidence and kindness of Denise Jafet (pictured), who has since 2021 chaired the Ladies Deliberative Council of the of the Hospital Sírio-Libanês, an institution that has had 350 members for 25 years and runs the hospital for over one hundred. “The female leadership is part of our history. Long before people started speaking of inclusion and gender equity, we were practicing these concepts here,” says Denise Jafet in an interview with ANBA to celebrate the Brazilian Arab Community Day.
The organization she chairs was founded in 1921 by the initiative of Adma Jafet (Lebanon, 1886 — São Paulo, 1956), who together with her lady friends of the Arab colony launched the idea to build a hospital as a way to thank the Brazilian society for its warm welcome. “I believe philanthropy and voluntary work were forms of female expression at a time when women were barred from many things, including voting.” This explains how the group managed to raise funds in the early 20th century to implement the idea of creating a space that catered to the general population, not just their own colony. “Other hospitals in the city had similar origins, like German community-founded Oswaldo Cruz, and were built with the same purpose of contributing to improve people’s lives.”
Denise holds the same position that her husband’s grandmother Violeta Jafet (1908-2016), occupied for 50 years, and she took over when the institution turned 100. It was no coincidence that this was on the same year that the institution was internationally recognized as a corporate space that promotes the women’s presence in advisory or administration boards and was certified by the Women on Board, also known as WOB, a non-profit supported by the UN Women. She stresses that 66% of the institution’s workers are women. “But we’ll step it up even further,” she promises. Of the 12 members of the board of directors, five are women.
Dona Violeta inherited from her mother, who first had the idea of the hospital, the mission of founding Sírio-Libanês, whose doors would only open on 15th August 1965, nine years after the death of Dona Adma. The building in the Bela Vista neighborhood in São Paulo took 20 years to be finished and was delivered in 1941. It could have started its activities on the same years if it wasn’t for the government of São Paulo confiscating it to establish a cadet school there. After years of talks, diplomacy and persistence, the community got the building back, made the reforms necessary and gave it its originally intended purpose. So was born the Sírio-Libanês!
Denise Jafet first chose exact sciences as a career path – she got a degree in mathematics and then pursued postgraduate studies in economics, but she was later chosen by human sciences. She says that maintaining a philanthropic institution in Brazil for such a long time isn’t an easy task and stresses this is her number-one challenge. “This is unnegotiable – we make a point of continuing to be a nonprofit institution.” Directors and advisors like her work as volunteers. Another important point of her work is the legacy that the institution wants to bequeath for posterity. “You know the idea of returning something better than you received? That’s it!” She says this is stimulating and mentions Dona Violeta as a true inspiration. “She didn’t get formal schooling but was educated by tutors – she was incredibly cultured and spoke many languages, and she was a great listener, too. Until she was 99, she used to make rounds in the hospital, and by 106, she was still making speeches in Christmas dinners. My mother and she were very advanced women, who thought and acted ahead of their time.”
Since the early 2000s, the Sírio-Libanês offers post-graduate, medical residency, master’s, and PhDs, and it has just started its first undergraduate classes of psychology, physiotherapy, and nursing, with 50 places each, of which 20% are for full scholarships. “One thing I’m sure of is that education changes lives – of the people studying, those around them, and the entire society. Therefore, it’s our job to raise the education bar in healthcare, as we have this amassed knowledge, this technology, so we want to train professionals who can work here, in other institutions, and the public system.” On a second stage, Denise Jafet explains, scholarships are also expected to feature an allowance to prevent students from dropping out. “It seems obvious, but for people to study with peace of mind and dedication, they need resources to live, and this has been hard.”
Jafet is a firm believer in the synergy between different generations. “Interacting with the youth refreshes us, stimulates us, stirs up change, and that’s great! Even our vocabulary is renewed.” Getting closer to newer generations that work in the hospital is a task she herself undertakes. “We want to present the spirit and the purpose of this mission to the young people who will eventually sit on this chair.” An idea being discussed is the establishment of a youth volunteering group that would work together with a nonprofit that incentivizes sports for wheelchair users, as well as maintaining a workshop that fixes wheelchairs. “Our goal is to create this look of empathy for understanding the real needs of these people and help developing an item that could be donated.”
Report by Paula Medeiros, especially for ANBA
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
