NGO founded by lawyers mobilizes social initiatives and has already impacted thousands of people in vulnerable situations
Author: Gabriela Amorim
GFC Solidário was born from a simple and urgent gesture: helping people. In April 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of friends who played football together, all lawyers who graduated from São Paulo’s Mackenzie University, decided to come together to distribute food baskets to people living on the streets.
The initial goal was 100 baskets, but the group managed to raise 500. “It went far beyond what we expected,” recalls Gabriela Camargo, 33, a criminal lawyer and one of the initiative’s volunteers. This spontaneous action gave rise to GFC Solidário, an association that mobilizes around 200 people in the city of São Paulo.
GFC emerged in an alarming context: with Brazil returning to the “Hunger Map”, from which it had exited in 2014, driven by the rise in extreme poverty. In response to this scenario, food collection was one of GFC Solidário’s first activities during the pandemic, and since then, more than twenty tons of food have been donated.
“We have the ability to mobilize people, you know? Sometimes we tend to wait or think we need to make a huge change, but often, with a small group, you can transform a community, a neighborhood, or a region, and that generates an incredible result,” says Camargo.
In addition to distributing food, the group also hands out personal hygiene kits with nine essential items and about 15 liters of hot chocolate on cold nights in the city, on the first Tuesday of each month. The actions take place along approximately nine fixed routes across São Paulo, in areas such as Santa Cecília, Jaguaré, and Avenida Nove de Julho.
“The mission of GFC is to humanize the streets. The idea is not just to deliver donations, but to create an exchange with others, to see the human being who is there. We’re always trying to balance quality time along with the donations,” she explains.
Today, the number of people living on the streets in São Paulo has surpassed 90,000 individuals, according to data from the Observatório Brasileiro de Políticas Públicas com a População em Situação de Rua – OBPopRua (Brazilian Observatory of Public Policies for the Homeless Population), at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), based on figures from the Ministério do Desenvolvimento e Assistência Social (Ministry of Social Development and Assistance). The city leads the national ranking, reflecting the worsening poverty and food insecurity in the country in recent years.
Over time, the group’s work has expanded. Today, in addition to its street outreach activities, GFC Solidário runs mentorship programs for law students who face difficulties entering the job market, blood donation campaigns, Easter initiatives in partnership with AACD and Cacau Show, the latter held in the last 3 years, between 2023 and 2025, in addition to Christmas events in the community of Cidade Tiradentes, located in the far east of the capital of São Paulo.
The work is carried out by a diverse collective made up of lawyers and volunteers from other fields. “Even though we have a large number of people in our WhatsApp group, most of the time it’s 10 of us out on the streets, and on other weeks it’s 40.”
“It’s important for people to understand that volunteering also happens when assembling the kits, when making purchases at wholesale stores like Atacadão. We’re an open group. We need people who can contribute with what they know, because that can help transform the NGO into something even bigger and more efficient,” says Gabriela. She also highlights the role of social media, which is currently the main channel for publicizing the NGO’s activities.
“The mission of GFC is to humanize the streets. To go to places on a Tuesday night that people consider extremely dangerous, and see that there is another human being there. I’m not talking about an utopian world where I claim the streets are safe, but about understanding that we don’t share the same story. We need to raise awareness,” she concludes.
Want to help this cause?
To support GFC Solidário, you can become a recurring donor or make a one-time donation, directly helping to sustain the NGO’s initiatives.
Monthly contributions in amounts of R$100 or R$300, help fund emergency campaigns and ongoing activities. Donations can be made easily and securely via Pix (46.516.322/0001-99) or credit card through the organization’s official website.
Those interested in volunteering can register through the website or by sending a direct message on Instagram: @gfcsolidario.
