2025
Activity Report
About Mapa
2026 marks Mapa do Acolhimento's 10th anniversary. Over this past decade, we've gone through several phases: we started as a one-off campaign connecting survivors of sexual violence with psychologists willing to help them, turned that idea into an ongoing project, and expanded the scope both in terms of who could help, including lawyers, and who could be helped, reaching survivors of any type of gender-based violence.
In 2023 came the biggest turning point in Mapa's history: we became an independent organization and began working with strategies beyond direct service provision. This shift came from a desire to stop acting only at the tail end of the problem we face, and instead work toward systemic change, alongside those who can truly drive that change – civil society and the State.
Since then, we've planted seeds, reaped good results, and dedicated ourselves to maturing our processes and refining our strategies to expand our impact. We continue to provide direct support through our volunteer network, but we've also begun influencing the development and strengthening of public policy, producing and sharing knowledge drawn from our hands-on experience, and mobilizing society to sustain and defend women's rights.
We believe in care as a political practice. We believe that confronting violence requires both individual listening and collective action. And we believe that structural change only happens when civil society and government jointly take responsibility for protecting lives.
As we reach our 10th year, we hold on to the same conviction that moved us from the start: no woman should have to face violence alone.
A Message from the Board
2025 was a year of transition. Jussa, one of our team members, brought to our year-end retreat the power of that word in her own experience, in the processes it carries, and how well it captured the announcement of Enrica's departure, our executive director. She also challenged us to consider that if we want to transform the structures of a country built on violence against women, we need the courage to look at our own organization with that same radical honesty. And that, to do so, we need to revisit our history, understand who we are in the present, and intentionally decide the future we want to build.
That reflection moved me deeply. For the first time, I would be taking on a role on Mapa do Acolhimento's executive board, and I understood that this change was also an invitation to imagine new ways of building this organization's leadership, grounded in that same radical honesty.
At Mapa, we believe that a Brazil free of violence against women is a horizon that is not only possible but necessary for the country we want to exist, and reaching that horizon requires building from reparation and justice, always in pursuit of bem viver (living well). But this future can't exist only as something we direct outward. As an organization, to produce the impact we want, we need to bring these values from the inside out. There is no reparation or bem viver for the women we support if these values don't also run through every part of how we work internally.
It's no coincidence that we dedicated 2025 to revising our strategy, strengthening our commitment to continuously improving our work, and preparing Mapa for this new cycle. As we approached our tenth year, we understood it was time to consolidate the foundations for the next ten. That's why adopting a co-leadership model reflects this commitment: a concrete way of sharing power by building collective, shared leadership.
We close out 2025 ready to celebrate, in 2026, a decade of Mapa do Acolhimento, looking not only at the path we've traveled, but at everything we still want to transform. As an organization, we believe that to achieve and sustain lasting change, transformation happens because the people who build Mapa — the team, the leadership, the volunteers, and the women who break cycles of violence — are transforming too. Thank you to everyone who has been and continues to be part of this story, and who will keep transforming along with us.
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Ana El Kadri
Programs & Implementation Director | Mapa do Acolhimento
Institutional
Caring for the structure
that sustains care
Institucional
Caring for the
sustains care
structure that
Institutional strengthening at Mapa do Acolhimento is an ongoing process, one that happens both behind the scenes of day-to-day management and in the encounters that build and renew relationships. In 2025, we invested in structuring initiatives, such as the revision of our theory of change, the refinement of our internal policies, and progress in our monitoring and evaluation processes – all of which helped us sharpen our work and see more clearly where we want to go.
Where are we, and where are we going?
To answer these two important questions, we drew on the support of consultants from Janela 8 to deepen our theory of change and structure our monitoring and evaluation processes.
A theory of change is the strategic tool that lays out the path an organization believes is necessary to generate transformation in the world – connecting its day-to-day actions to the impact it hopes to see in the long run. This tool works like a compass, guiding our choices and strengthening our institutional coherence.
Our theory of change is guided by feminist, antiracist, intersectional, and territorially grounded strategies, and starts from the understanding that confronting violence against women requires collective action and coordination between civil society and government. That's why our work is organized around three main strategies:
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Service Provision
Mobilization
Cooperation with Governments
Our three areas of work complement one another. Under Mobilization, we strengthen local networks working to confront violence, encouraging coordination between civil society and government. Under Cooperation with Governments, we offer training and advisory support to strengthen the implementation of public policies addressing violence against women. And under Service Provision, we've developed a humanized care methodology, sustained by a network of trained volunteers who provide psychological and legal support, with technical supervision and ongoing systematization of lessons learned.
Mapa do Acolhimento's Theory of Change is born from the practice of care and recognizes that care transforms.
It was built collectively, through a participatory process of sensitive listening committed to the many voices that make up the organization and its partner organizations. By incorporating an intersectional perspective, attentive to the many inequalities that cut across women's bodies and histories, our theory of change bets on the radical power of care, listening, and networks to shift structures and generate structural impact on women's lives: reducing rates of violence against women and reducing rates of femicide.
Service Provision
Caring so that life
can continue
Service Provision is Mapa do Acolhimento's oldest and most established strategy. Through this front, we have already connected thousands of survivors to thousands of volunteer psychologists and lawyers across Brazil.
In recent years, we've made important improvements to our technology to make this process faster, better organized, and safer. In 2025, that effort produced a concrete result: we brought the number of volunteers without an active case down to zero. This means every registered professional was actively following at least one case, strengthening the network and expanding our capacity to respond.
We also began tracking necessary re-referrals even more carefully. We review each case individually and put out specific calls to find volunteers who could respond to each situation in a qualified way – whether based on proximity to the survivor's location, or experience with a particular type of violence or specific context. This careful matching has been an essential part of the quality of our work.
2025 was also marked by significant engagement with public services across different regions of the country. We were approached by Centros de Referência (Women's Reference Centers), Casas Abrigo (Shelter Homes), the Ministério Público (Public Prosecutor's Office), and other services within the protection network that sought training based on our care methodology. This makes us very proud, as it shows that the experience Mapa has built up over nearly a decade has contributed not only to individual support, but also to strengthening public policy and institutional services.
In terms of engagement, the year brought an important shift in how volunteers connect with one another. We replaced the old regional groups with the Mapa do Acolhimento Community, a space that brings together volunteer psychologists and lawyers from all over Brazil. There, every day, they share questions, concerns, lessons learned, and strategies, supporting one another and building collective knowledge from practice. More than just a communication channel, the community has become a space for exchange, support, and belonging.
Volunteer gathering in São Paulo
Volunteer gathering in Rio de Janeiro
It was also in this context of strengthened engagement that the first group of Madrinhas volunteers emerged. The initiative was born from a proposal made by the volunteers themselves during an in-person gathering early in the year, and was developed together with the Mapa team. Madrinhas are volunteers who have offered to more closely support their peers, helping with uncertainties, technical questions, and the day-to-day challenges of volunteering, as well as sharing their experiences within the network. Creating this group reinforced something we already knew: Mapa is sustained by the collective power of the women who build it.
Two other initiatives that took shape in 2025 also grew out of listening to and mobilizing the volunteers themselves. The Psychological Support Groups, led by volunteer Juliana Farah, expanded the range of support offered by providing a collective space for listening and exchange among women experiencing violence, helping to reduce isolation and strengthen support networks. Meanwhile, the Projeto Cuidando (Caring Project), an initiative led by volunteer and madrinha Ana Faustino, organized collective clinical supervision sessions for volunteers, creating a space to reflect on the challenges of providing support and to strengthen technical confidence in following cases.
The experiences of this past year reaffirm Mapa do Acolhimento as a space for co-creating solutions as well, where volunteers don't just work on the front lines, but actively help propose, improve, and collectively strengthen the network. It is through listening and shared practice that we keep turning what we learn into concrete improvements, both for those who provide care and for those who receive it.
Care Methodology
The growing demand for training over the past few years has driven a long-standing goal within Mapa: to bring together, in a systematic way, the records, lessons, and experience accumulated throughout our history. In 2025, we took concrete steps in that direction and began consolidating a comprehensive document that organizes our care guidelines and strategies, built through practice, direct contact with thousands of women, and the network of volunteers that sustains this work.
More than a set of procedures, our methodology starts from one non-negotiable principle: care must be centered on the survivor. This means recognizing and respecting, above all, her autonomy. Every decision about the path forward belongs to her. Our role is to offer qualified information, listening, and technical and emotional support, but never to replace her ability to choose.
Care Methodology
We also understand that no violence happens in isolation. Every case is shaped by social and economic factors, as well as race, territory, and circumstance, all of which directly influence the possibilities for protection and rebuilding. That's why our approach takes into account the political and social context each woman is part of, seeking responses that make sense for her specific reality.
We believe in care that is free from revictimization, grounded in active listening, trust, and respect. Care that does not question the survivor's word, does not impose judgment, and takes her story seriously and with care.
By systematizing this methodology, our goal is not only to strengthen our own work internally, but also to share it with public services, civil society organizations, and other institutions that provide direct support. We want to help spread good practices and build a better-qualified protection network across Brazil.
4.473
Connections made
2.428
Registered volunteers
3.567
Requests for help received
Through the support provided by our volunteer psychologists and lawyers, our goal is to offer survivors the support they need to be informed about their rights and to have their autonomy strengthened so they can regain control over their lives.
To make sure our support is effectively meeting that goal, we monitor progress with volunteers and survivors through our assessment tools. These forms, sent periodically while support is ongoing, help us understand how the survivor has been coping with the violence and its effects, as well as how the professional understands the case they are handling.
We already had monitoring and evaluation tools for our support, which allowed us to track how cases were progressing and identify possible needs for support or adjustment. In 2025, however, we took a further step: we implemented quality of life assessment tools. These forms were created to gain a broader understanding of the survivor's situation, looking at aspects such as self-esteem, sense of safety, and other factors that directly affect her quality of life.
180 days after support began:
Upon arriving at Mapa:
8%
of survivors describe their quality of life as good
47%
do not feel able to cope with the impacts of violence
7%
positively rate their self-esteem and self-image
31%
describe their quality of life as good or very good
78%
feel able to cope, despite the difficulties
23%
rate their self-esteem as good or very good
Implementing these assessment tools was an important step forward for Mapa. The responses we've received have become a consistent indicator of how effective the support provided by our network really is. Progressively, survivors report improvements in their quality of life, a greater sense of safety, and stronger self-esteem over the course of their support. This data confirms that qualified, survivor-centered care, sustained by committed professionals, produces concrete impact in rebuilding lives marked by violence.
Training for Public Services
We were approached by the Procuradoria Especial da Mulher de São Miguel Arcanjo (São Miguel Arcanjo's Special Women's Prosecutor's Office) to hold an event as part of the Agosto Lilás campaign. When they reached out to us, the team shared important challenges in their region: difficulty accessing immediate care, limited recognition of the Prosecutor's Office itself as a place for support, and the need to bring qualified information to women in a simple, accessible way, free of technical barriers that might discourage or exclude those who need help.
Based on that conversation, we put together a gathering focused on self-care and on introducing the municipality's public network. We held a talk followed by a discussion circle with our Multipliers, creating a space for listening and exchange, and presented the services available in the area. The idea was to bring information and care together, strengthening access to rights and to the local protection network.
In 2025, we held a training for the technical team at the Centro de Referência da Mulher (CRM) (Women's Reference Center) in Jataí, a recently created service still in the process of getting established in the municipality. Through our conversations with the team, we identified challenges common to services still being structured, such as organizing internal workflows, defining guidelines, and strengthening care practices.
With the goal of strengthening humanized care and specialized listening, we held an online session focused on raising awareness about gender-based violence and on survivor-centered care practices. We covered topics such as identifying different forms of violence, revictimization, the critical pathway, and coordination with the service network. More than a training session, it was a space for exchange with people who work on the front lines of care every day, sharing lessons learned, listening to experiences, and strengthening connections.
We held a training for the team at Centro de Acolhida para Mulheres (CAE) Lar Ditoso (Lar Ditoso Women's Shelter Center), a service that provides temporary shelter to women experiencing homelessness or vulnerability resulting from broken family ties and/or domestic violence.
During the session, we discussed how social markers of difference shape the experience of violence and affect access to services, and we explored concepts around the dynamics and types of gender-based violence, available legal tools, and the principles of humanized care from an intersectional perspective. We also emphasized the importance of coordinating with the Rede de Atendimento às Mulheres em Situação de Violência (Network for Women in Situations of Violence), recognizing that effective protection depends on integrated work across services. It was an opportunity to exchange with a team that works on the front lines of care every day, reaffirming our shared commitment to continuously improving care practices.
Cooperation with Governments
Advocating to
change structures
Confronting gender and racial violence in Brazil requires responses that match the scale of the inequalities that produce it. It is from this understanding that Mapa do Acolhimento develops its Cooperation with Governments strategy. We know that only the State has the reach and resources needed to ensure that the protection mechanisms set out in the Maria da Penha Law reach all women. At the same time, civil society has built up experience and methodologies capable of strengthening public action.
Over a decade of providing care to survivors of violence, Mapa has built valuable knowledge about the barriers women face. The Cooperation with Governments strategy is born precisely from the meeting point between these two dimensions: strengthening public policy based on listening to women and on the experience accumulated by civil society.
The strategy began taking shape in 2023, in partnership with Instituto Geni. The first step was signing a cooperation agreement with the Secretaria Estadual da Mulher e dos Direitos Humanos de Alagoas (Alagoas State Secretariat for Women and Human Rights, SEMUDH), which gave rise to the Alagoas por Elas project. The initiative resulted in the development of a state plan for women's policy and in a training process aimed at public managers working in Organismos de Políticas para as Mulheres (Women's Policy Bodies, OPMs).
Cooperation with Governments
Advocating
to change
structures
The experience in Alagoas demonstrated the transformative potential of this work and paved the way for its expansion. In 2025, we signed new agreements with four Northeastern states: Sergipe, Piauí, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte, consolidating the strategy's expansion and deepening the dialogue between civil society and government in shaping public policy for women.
Work in the Northeast
The decision to prioritize the Northeast region in developing the Cooperation with Governments strategy is the result of a political and strategic choice. Regional inequalities in confronting gender-based violence in Brazil run deep, and the Northeast consistently records some of the highest femicide rates in the country.
These indicators are directly linked to contexts marked by socioeconomic inequality, structural racism, and limited access to specialized public services. In this scenario, Black and low-income women are disproportionately affected by violence, while remaining underrepresented in decision-making spaces and in the distribution of public resources.
By directing our efforts toward this region, we aim to help strengthen networks confronting violence in territories that have historically been underfunded and have less presence of specialized public policy for women. Our work with state and municipal governments also seeks to address institutional challenges that affect the effectiveness of the Maria da Penha Law, expanding the capacity to plan, implement, and monitor policies aimed at protecting women.
Actions carried out
In 2025, one of the main fronts of Cooperation with Governments was the course Fortalece Elas: Políticas Públicas para Equidade de Gênero nos Municípios (Strengthening Women: Public Policy for Gender Equity in Municipalities), aimed at public managers working in Organismos de Políticas para as Mulheres (OPMs) in the states of Sergipe, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and Piauí.
The training was designed to strengthen, both technically and politically, the leaders responsible for implementing public policy for women in their territories. Throughout the training track, participants engaged with content covering gender inequality from an intersectional perspective, analysis of gender-based violence, and strengthening public policy aimed at promoting equity.
293
public managers trained in gender,
race, and public policy
139
municipalities directly
reached by the training activities
Another important front of the strategy was developing political-territorial diagnostics in the states of Sergipe, Piauí, and Rio Grande do Norte. Using a methodology developed by Instituto Geni, we carried out a detailed mapping of the services that make up the state and municipal networks confronting violence against women in some of these states. The goal of these studies is to understand the level of structure and maturity of OPMs in each location, identifying institutional gaps and opportunities to strengthen existing public policy. The diagnostics produce technical recommendations for integrating and improving public policy, and also help guide the planning of training activities and the production of strategic materials throughout the project.
The results of these studies were shared with state and municipal managers, contributing to strategic planning and to deepening institutional partnerships. In some cases, the diagnostics also led to technical advisory processes.
In Rio Grande do Norte, for example, identifying gaps in the production and use of data on violence against women led to a complementary study with recommendations for improving how information is used in policy planning. As a result, we developed the Guia de Uso de Dados sobre Violência contra a Mulher (Guide to Using Data on Violence Against Women), a practical tool that guides public managers on where to find reliable data and how to use it to plan, monitor, and evaluate efforts to confront violence.
Also in Rio Grande do Norte, we produced the Guia para Criação de Organismos de Políticas para Mulheres no Rio Grande do Norte (Guide to Creating Women's Policy Bodies in Rio Grande do Norte), a practical manual that brings together technical and political guidance for setting up these bodies in municipalities. The material had a wide local impact and ended up being adopted as a technical standard by the state's Tribunal de Contas (Court of Auditors).
In addition to producing technical materials to strengthen public management, we also supported the relaunch of the Fórum Estadual de Organismos de Políticas para Mulheres (State Forum of Women's Policy Bodies). The initiative involved mediating and organizing meetings between state and municipal managers, aiming to strengthen institutional ties, promote the exchange of experiences across territories, and create the conditions for building joint strategies to confront violence against women in the state.
In Sergipe, the partnership also contributed to building the state's first Plano Estadual de Políticas para as Mulheres (State Plan for Women's Policy), developed through a broad participatory process. The plan brings together contributions from municipal, regional, and state conferences on women's policy, as well as document analysis and listening workshops carried out throughout the process.
These initiatives reflect the potential of Cooperation with Governments to turn the knowledge accumulated by civil society into tools for strengthening public policy, expanding the State's capacity to respond to the many forms of violence affecting women in Brazil.
Cooperation with the Secretaria de Estado de Políticas para as Mulheres de Sergipe (Sergipe State Secretariat for Women's Policy, SPM)
Curso Fortalece Elas - Políticas Públicas para Equidade de Gênero nos Municípios (Fortalece Elas Course - Public Policy for Gender Equity in Municipalities)
The course was attended by 73 public managers from 32 municipalities, representing 85% of the state's municipalities that have OPMs.
Diagnóstico do Nível de Maturidade do Organismo de Política para Mulheres Estadual (Diagnostic of the State Women's Policy Body's Maturity Level)A study on the institutional maturity level of the State Secretariat responsible for women's policy. The diagnostic examines the structure, services, and coordination capacity of the public policy, serving as a basis for planning the Secretariat's strategic actions and deepening the institutional partnership.
Plano Estadual de Políticas Para Mulheres (State Plan for Women's Policy)
Support for the process of building Sergipe's first State Plan for Women's Policy. The initiative sought to broaden social participation in shaping public policy by facilitating dialogue between government and women from different social groups across the state.
Cooperation with the Secretaria de Estado das Mulheres do Piauí (Piauí State Secretariat for Women, Sempi)
Curso Fortalece Elas - Políticas Públicas para Equidade de Gênero nos Municípios (Fortalece Elas Course - Public Policy for Gender Equity in Municipalities)
Training aimed at strengthening the technical and political capacity of managers working in public policy for women in Piauí's municipalities. The course was attended by 61 public managers from 16 municipalities.
Diagnóstico dos Serviços da Rede Estadual e Municipal de Enfrentamento à Violência contra as Mulheres (Diagnostic of State and Municipal Network Services for Confronting Violence Against Women)
A mapping of the services that make up the state's network for confronting violence against women. The study identified institutional gaps and presented recommendations for strengthening integration among services and improving the implementation of public policy.
Cooperation with the Secretaria das Mulheres e da Diversidade Humana da Paraíba (Paraíba Secretariat for Women and Human Diversity, SEMDH)
Curso Fortalece Elas - Políticas Públicas para Equidade de Gênero nos Municípios (Fortalece Elas Course - Public Policy for Gender Equity in Municipalities)
Training aimed at strengthening the technical and political capacity of managers working in OPMs in Paraíba. The course was attended by 98 public servants from 71 municipalities, reaching 65% of the state's existing municipal OPMs.
Cooperation with the Secretaria das Mulheres, da Juventude, da Igualdade Racial e dos Direitos Humanos (Secretariat for Women, Youth, Racial Equality, and Human Rights)
Curso Fortalece Elas - Políticas Públicas para Equidade de Gênero nos Municípios (Fortalece Elas Course - Public Policy for Gender Equity in Municipalities
Training aimed at strengthening the technical and political capacity of managers working in OPMs in Rio Grande do Norte. The course was attended by 61 public managers from every municipality in the state that has an OPM.
Diagnóstico de Maturidade Institucional das OPMs municipais e estaduais (Institutional Maturity Diagnostic of Municipal and State OPMs
A study on the institutional maturity level of the municipal and state OPMs, examining their structure, operations, and coordination capacity. The diagnostic served as a basis for planning training activities and developing guidance materials within the project.
Fórum Estadual de Organismos de Políticas para Mulheres (State Forum of Women's Policy Bodies
Support for relaunching the State Forum of OPMs, through mediating and organizing meetings between state and municipal managers. The initiative sought to strengthen institutional ties, promote exchange across territories, and create the conditions for building joint strategies to confront violence against women.
Guias para Melhoria da Cultura e Qualificação do Uso de Dados (Guides for Improving Data Culture and Use)
Development of technical material aimed at improving the use of data in public management. The guide brings together guidance on how to access, interpret, and use information on violence against women, helping to strengthen evidence-based management and improve the planning and monitoring of public policy.
Guia para Criação de Organismos de Políticas para Mulheres (Guide to Creating Women's Policy Bodies)
Development of a practical manual with technical and political guidance for creating Women's Policy Bodies in the municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte, bringing together information on the institutional steps needed to implement these structures.
Mobilization
Strengthening networks
to confront violence
About the strategy
mobilization
Strengthening
networks to
confront violence
To confront a structural problem like gender-based violence, it is essential that civil society be organized, informed, and connected. Our Mobilization strategy is born from this understanding: to strengthen networks of women, activists, and feminist collectives who work directly in their communities and play an essential role in defending rights and confronting violence.
Through this strategy, Mapa develops initiatives that connect different dimensions of confronting gender and racial violence. We work on training and strengthening community leadership, supporting local social mobilization initiatives, coordinating among civil society organizations, and creating spaces for dialogue among activists, collectives, and public institutions. By strengthening these networks, we help expand civil society's capacity to act both in preventing violence and in promoting public policy that is more effective and attuned to local realities.
We understand that for grassroots feminist activism to stay active, it needs concrete conditions to make that possible. That's why access to funding has become a core part of our Mobilization strategy. In 2025, Mapa do Acolhimento supported a range of Multiplier-led initiatives working to confront gender-based violence in their communities, providing both funding and technical support from our team.
The funding was secured through the Born This Way Foundation, through its Kindness in Community fund, which supports organizations and projects that strengthen youth engagement with a focus on mental health and inclusive environments. This funding was applied to initiatives involving different audiences and communities, mobilizing young people, community leaders, feminist collectives, and civil society organizations through training activities, in-person gatherings, political coordination, and activist-strengthening initiatives. These actions helped expand support networks, encourage public debate, and strengthen social participation in policies to confront violence against women.
6.146
People reached through
Mobilization activities
32
Activities and outputs developed
in partnership with the network
confronting violence
Multipliers Program
In 2025, the Multipliers Program continued expanding its presence in communities through the direct work of women who are part of Mapa do Acolhimento's activist community. Multipliers are women who, from within their own communities, lead awareness-raising, training, and social mobilization efforts, bringing conversations about gender and racial violence into the everyday lives of different audiences.
Throughout the year, Multipliers worked in partnership with public institutions and local organizations, promoting activities that allowed women of different generations to discuss their rights, recognize situations of violence, and learn how to access the support networks available in their communities. Many of these activities also aimed to encourage the leadership of young people, strengthening their ability to take part in public debate and to promote rights within their communities.
The activities they carried out also helped establish spaces for collective care among activists and strengthen bonds among women working to defend rights. By connecting training, social mobilization, and community coordination, the program helped more people gain access to information and tools to confront gender-based violence in their communities.
Activities Organized by Multipliers
In partnership with the Secretaria da Criança e Juventude de Pernambuco (Pernambuco Secretariat for Children and Youth), Mapa do Acolhimento held two training sessions on youth rights, gender, and mental health at the Casas das Juventudes (Youth Centers) in Condado and Surubim. The activities brought together around 30 young people in each municipality and were facilitated by Ítala Ferreira, a Mapa Multiplier, alongside Clarice Mendes, a volunteer lawyer with the organization and youth policy manager at the secretariat, as well as invited specialists.
During the sessions, participants reflected on topics such as diversity, bullying, digital crimes, and hate speech. As part of the program, an audiovisual production workshop on promoting rights invited the young participants to think about using social media strategically to spread information and mobilize their communities.
In the Coqueiros quilombola community, in the municipality of Mirangaba, an initiative led by Multiplier Letícia França, through the Projeto Acolher (Welcoming Project), brought together young people for activities focused on confronting gender-based violence and promoting mental health.
With support from Mapa do Acolhimento, the initiative held workshops, discussion circles, and artistic performances to create a space for listening and sharing experiences. The reflections that emerged from these activities led to an action plan, presented at a special session of the Mirangaba Municipal Council, which helped create the municipality's first Committee for Confronting Gender-Based Violence and Promoting Mental Health.
In Salvador, Bahia, the Café e Ativismo (Coffee and Activism) gathering brought together Mapa do Acolhimento's Multipliers and volunteers for a moment of exchange, collective care, and stronger bonds among women confronting gender-based violence. The program included activities and discussion circles on self-care, sustaining activism, and collective action. As part of the mobilization, participants also carried out an outreach activity in the city's Historic Center to share information about Mapa's work and guide the public on how to seek support in situations of violence.
Also in Salvador, Mapa do Acolhimento supported two editions of Café com Elas (Coffee with Them), a monthly gathering led by Multiplier Rebeca Barbosa, who works with the Frente Nacional de Negros e Negras (National Black Women and Men's Front). The gathering brings together Black women of different generations to discuss ancestry, share experiences, and strengthen bonds among activists and organizations. It features discussion circles, cultural performances, and the participation of social movement leaders, reinforcing the importance of collective mobilization in confronting racial and gender inequality.
The Coletivo Jovens Protagonistas da Costa dos Corais (Costa dos Corais Young Leaders Collective) had the support of Mapa do Acolhimento to hold the 1st Encontro de Jovens Protagonistas da Pesca da Costa dos Corais (Gathering of Young Leaders in Costa dos Corais Fishing Communities). Organized by Multipliers Gabrielly Ferreira and Tayná Oliveira, the event allowed young people from artisanal fishing communities across different territories to reflect on the impacts of climate change on their lives and communities, and on how to strengthen networks of care and resistance. Through discussion circles, workshops, and activities, youth leadership was at the center of the debate, building paths toward a fairer and more sustainable future for everyone. The proposals developed at the gathering were put forward for inclusion in the state's Política Estadual de Saúde das Mulheres Pescadoras (State Policy for the Health of Women Fishers).
This gathering was the result of connections made possible by Todas Por Alagoas, forming another initiative that boosted the work of the Rede de Mulheres Pescadoras da Costa dos Corais (Costa dos Corais Women Fishers' Network), one of the initiatives supported by the program.
Todas por Alagoas
In 2025, one of the main initiatives of the Mobilization strategy was the strengthening of feminist and community collectives through the Todas por Alagoas program. Created to support initiatives already working to confront gender-based violence in their communities, it offered institutional support, training, coordination with government, and visibility for the work of 3 collectives in Alagoas. The project was funded by the Embaixada da França no Brasil (French Embassy in Brazil), which aims to strengthen gender equality around the world through feminist diplomacy.
Over six months, the program supported the development of each collective's own action plans focused on preventing gender-based violence, strengthening the response network, and expanding women's access to rights and public services. The initiatives received technical support to plan their activities, build their capacity for political advocacy, and strengthen partnerships with public institutions and civil society organizations.
The impact of the activities carried out by these initiatives throughout the program shows the power of local efforts in building community responses to gender and racial violence. Combined, the activities carried out by Coletivo Maria Bonita, Grupo de Pesquisa Frida Kahlo, and Rede de Mulheres Pescadoras da Costa dos Corais mobilized more than 1,800 women, young people, and professionals, through training sessions, educational campaigns, public hearings, and political advocacy efforts.
Following the success of Todas por Alagoas, the French Embassy secured a new round of funding to replicate the strategy in another state. Later in 2025, we launched Todas por RN, with the selection process and formal partnerships with feminist initiatives in Rio Grande do Norte already underway. The program has become a point of convergence between our Mobilization and Cooperation with Governments strategies, being implemented in states where Mapa, together with Instituto Geni, establishes Technical Cooperation Agreements with Organismos de Políticas para Mulheres (OPMs).
Todas por Alagoas Program Activities
Working in the Alagoas backlands, it carried out activities to strengthen the network confronting violence against women and to raise community awareness on the issue.
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+610 women reached directly through the support services, workshops, and events held by Coletivo Maria Bonita
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+420 high school students took part in their training sessions on mental health care and femicide prevention;
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Developed 7 partnerships with public institutions, universities, and other civil society organizations.
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Focused on training education professionals and producing educational materials on gender and racial equality and on confronting violence.
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+780 young people and adults reached by the educational activities carried out by Grupo de Pesquisa Frida Kahlo in 6 schools, which received the Selo de Escola Lilás (Purple School Seal);
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Distributed over 1,500 booklets on services and support available to women who are victims of violence in Maceió, Alagoas;
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Created the Observatório Alagoas de Igualdade de Gênero (Alagoas Gender Equality Observatory), based on the analysis of more than 6,290 police reports on gender-based violence.
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Carried out activities to raise visibility around the violence faced by women working in artisanal fishing and to strengthen their political organizing.
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+450 women fishers and shellfish gatherers reached by the activities of the Rede de Mulheres Pescadoras;
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Held 37 discussion circles and meetings with women fishers and shellfish gatherers to discuss gender-based violence;
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Built 19 partnerships to strengthen the rights of women fishers and shellfish gatherers in Alagoas.
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Developed and launched the booklet "Violência de Gênero na Pesca (Gender-Based Violence in Fishing) - A Guide to Confronting the Tide of Violence Against Women of the Waters and Seas," developed in partnership with the Secretaria da Mulher e Direitos Humanos de Alagoas (Alagoas Secretariat for Women and Human Rights), the first material of its kind in the country.
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Events
Where we've been
At the same time that our society lives in an age of hyperconnectivity, we've never been so absent from our social relationships. And there's nothing better to address this symptom of our times than intentional gatherings, where we can look each other in the eye and practice true presence. With that in mind, and out of a desire to grow closer to our community and build a collective sense of belonging, we organized and encouraged a number of gatherings among the women who make Mapa do Acolhimento happen.
Marcha das Mulheres Negras
(March of Black Women)
Brasília
As an organization formed mostly by Black women, taking an active part in the 2nd Marcha das Mulheres Negras was a priority in 2025 and an important milestone in Mapa do Acolhimento's history. The March, which is political, educational, and mobilizing in nature, brings together thousands around a shared agenda to confront racism and the many forms of violence that disproportionately affect the lives of Black women.
In this context, we took part in creating the Comitê de Enfrentamento à Violência de Gênero e Raça (Committee for Confronting Gender and Racial Violence), a collective coalition made up of organizations working in care, information, and political advocacy to guarantee rights. The committee was built in partnership with Instituto Odara, Frente Nacional de Negras e Negros, Gênero e Número, Instituto Geni, Instituto AzMina, Casa Sueli Carneiro, Mulheres Negras Decidem, and Nós, Mulheres da Periferia, with the goal of strengthening support networks, expanding the circulation of qualified information, and driving political advocacy to confront the inequalities affecting Black women.
We also helped lead the organization of the Committee's launch event, held at Casa Sueli Carneiro in São Paulo. The gathering brought together partner organizations, activists, and leaders to present the initiative and create a space for dialogue on the challenges of confronting gender and racial violence. For us, contributing to this collective process reinforces our commitment to work connected to the historic struggles of Black women and to building coordinated responses to the structural violence that runs through our everyday lives.
Mais Eventos
New York
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is an annual event held by the UN, which reached its 70th session in 2025 and aims to bring together representatives from governments, international organizations, and civil society to set political commitments on this agenda. This year's theme was: ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers.
Alongside the official sessions, there are what's known as parallel events, organized by civil society organizations, and Mapa do Acolhimento was selected to present a panel this year. It was an opportunity to share the challenges survivors of gender-based violence in Brazil face in accessing justice, and to present the mechanisms civil society has created to address them through our work. We even had participants from Nepal!
Brasília
Recognition of Mapa do Acolhimento's work producing evidence-based, gender-sensitive informational content on social media was highlighted in a study conducted by Fiocruz on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Based on that study, we were invited to take part in the 14th Congresso Brasileiro de Saúde Coletiva (Brazilian Public Health Congress) held by Abrasco (Abrascão), one of the largest public health gatherings in the country.
At the event, we took part in a panel addressing the role of civil society in promoting public health and guaranteeing rights, reinforcing the importance of initiatives that help expand access to qualified information and strengthen public debate on health and rights. Participating in Abrascão was an opportunity to engage with researchers, public managers, and organizations working in the field, bringing the knowledge produced by civil society closer to spaces of policy-making and reflection in public health.
Rio de Janeiro
Organized by the Centre for Exponential Change (C4EC) in partnership with Instituto Beja, which is responsible for implementing the Centro para Mudanças Exponenciais (Center for Exponential Change) in Brazil, The exChange Summit brought together organizations, funders, and leaders from around the world to share lessons, form connections, and think through paths toward exponential change.
C4EC has long been a partner of Mapa do Acolhimento. Through personalized mentorship focused on scalable, high-impact solutions, we've built an ongoing space for reflecting on our strategies and how we can improve them to reach more women who need care. It was from these reflections that we were invited to present our model for exponential change at the event, which centers on strengthening volunteers, Multipliers, and public servants across Brazil through our humanized care methodology.
Brasília and Santos
Through an initiative led by Instituto Incube together with the Oak Foundation, we were selected to join a community of organizations working on issues related to women's rights. Out of this community came opportunities for new partnerships, exchanges of experience, and joint initiatives led by the feminist organizations in the group. Two immersions were held, in Santos and Brasília, where representatives from the organizations came together to deepen their understanding of each other's work, identify points of convergence, and pave the way for collaboration and joint advocacy.
Transparency
Transparency is a foundational value in how Mapa do Acolhimento operates, and a direct expression of the ethical commitment that guides everything we do. For an organization that provides direct support to women experiencing violence, responsible use of resources goes beyond good financial management: it's a condition for the work to continue and for the organization to remain sustainable. Every resource we allocate represents a real chance for a woman to receive care, whether through our volunteer network or through public services in the network confronting violence.
Budget Execution in 2025
48,6%
Team (R$ 3,367,706.58)
17,2%
Full Implementation (R$ 1,190,954.17)
10,8%
Consulting (R$ 746,518.45)
9,3%
Travel (R$ 644,520.79)
3,9%
Cash Transfers (R$ 267,884.86)
3,6%
Equipment and Platforms (R$ 249,414.63)
3,2%
Communication (R$ 219,608.96)
3,0%
Administrative (R$ 208,031.77)
0,4%
Events (R$ 30,454.06)
It's no coincidence that our team is the largest line item in our budget. As a feminist organization, we understand that socioeconomic justice starts at home: every staff member is hired under Brazil's formal labor law (CLT). While this model is the path to guaranteeing full labor rights, it also comes at a significantly higher cost than more common hiring models in the sector. In practice, this means a smaller team than organizations of similar size, since we only hire when we have medium-term funding security.
Self-declared race
Education level
Age range
Beyond basic rights, the benefits we offer are directly shaped by who makes up our team. Mapa do Acolhimento is an organization made up mostly of Black women, for whom benefits like an education stipend are concrete tools for empowerment and for accessing spaces that have historically been denied to them.
Audit
Financial accountability at Mapa do Acolhimento is an ongoing process that starts with day-to-day work: monthly financial reconciliation organizes and documents every transaction, checking revenue and expenses with rigor and attention to tax requirements. This everyday care culminates each year in an external audit – an independent process that assesses compliance and efficiency in the use of resources and that strengthens our credibility with funders, partners, and society. More than an obligation, the audit is, for us, a management tool and an active commitment to transparency, since managing the resources entrusted to us well is essential to keep attracting new support and, with it, expanding the reach of our impact. The audit for fiscal year 2025 is available for review at the link below.
Acknowledgments
From the very beginning, Mapa do Acolhimento has been an organization that exists only through collective action. All of the impact we've had over these nearly 10 years was built by the thousands of women who chose to volunteer their time, those who mobilize their communities, the many others who entrusted their stories and healing process to this work, the partners who stand with us in this fight, and the many donors who make our existence possible.
We want to offer our sincere thanks to the donors who supported our work in 2025:
We would also like to thank the funding institutions whose support made it possible to sustain and grow our work in 2025:
The trust each of them places in us is what allows us to plan for the future and keep standing alongside the women who come to us. It is an honor to have partnerships that recognize the importance of confronting gender and racial violence and that choose, together with us, to invest in building a fairer, safer Brazil for all women.
Introduction
2025 was not an easy year. Once again, Brazil recorded a historic high in femicides, showing just how much work still lies ahead of us. Even so, we don't remember the past year only for its losses.
Women did not stay silent in the face of the many cases of violence against women that filled the news. In the final months of the year, we saw women mobilizing and organizing uprisings against femicides from the North to the South of the country. It was also in 2025 that, after ten years, two events of great importance for the advancement of our democracy and the rights of Brazilian women returned: the Conferences on Policies for Women and the Marcha das Mulheres Negras (March of Black Women).
Within Mapa do Acolhimento, we also kept moving. Amid a landscape of so many urgent needs, our volunteers stood with us on the front lines, providing thousands of psychological and legal support sessions to women seeking help to confront violence. This work, carried out with active listening, responsibility, and commitment, is the foundation of Mapa and exists only thanks to the careful, ongoing dedication of these professionals, who sustain care even in the most difficult circumstances. Every request for help we received reinforced what drives us: ensuring that more women can get through violence with support, protection, and real conditions to rebuild their lives with dignity.
But 2025 was also a year of looking inward and strengthening the foundations that sustain this work. We made progress on institutional processes essential to ensuring that Mapa continues to exist, grow, and generate impact. We revised our Theory of Change – a collective exercise in reflecting on how our actions connect to the impact we want to have on the world. In simple terms, our Theory of Change helps us answer one central question: how does what we do today help transform the reality we want to build tomorrow?
It was also in 2025 that we dove deeper into monitoring and evaluation of our work. We created indicators to track, with greater care and accountability, the results we produce over time. Monitoring and evaluating is, above all, a commitment to transparency and learning: understanding what works, what needs to be adjusted, and how we can be more effective in protecting and empowering the women who come to us.
Between direct care, mobilization, cooperation with governments, and institutional strengthening, we keep making choices that sustain the present and prepare for the future. Because confronting violence against women demands immediate action, but it also demands structure, strategy, and a commitment to the long term.
