In honor of a friend, a resident of Santos created a project that helps women to start businesses

Depressed after losing her house in a fire, Magda met Rodrigo Caju, who introduced her to the world of volunteering. However, in 2018 the man took his own life and the Caju Project was created to honor his memory

26.09.23

In 2016, Magda and her family lost everything during a fire in the apartment where they lived in Santos, on the coast of São Paulo. After this tragedy, she and her children had to start everything over from scratch. Magda says that thanks to a son who was, at the time, a violinist at IGPA – Instituto Grupo Pão de Açúcar – they won a apartment makeover and had support from their family and some friends.

But despite being able to start over, Magda was left with two consequences: depression and panic syndrome. In addition to the deep sadness, she was very afraid to leave the house, she imagined that if she left, another fire would break out.

It was after that, even with the after-effects, she met Rodrigo Caju, a man who loved social work and who became a great friend of hers. He would take her out of the house and take her to the Marapé community, in the same neighborhood, where he was already working as a volunteer.

He really loved the children, bringing cakes, sweets, and having a great time with them. He took Magda with the intention of introducing her to another side, the side that did good actions. He wanted to pull her out of her depression, to help her overcome her fear, and that’s exactly what happened.

But in 2018, she experienced one of the most painful moments of her life: the young man took his own life. Once again, Magda’s world fell apart. For a long time, she wondered why she hadn’t noticed what was happening with her friend, concluding that it was her own internal pain that had blinded her.

The pain that transforms

In 2020, there were landslides in Santos. Magda was away from work, she didn’t even answer her phone, but she had Caju’s device, which she received from his mother as a souvenir and she answered it.

The device started ringing with nonstop and, when she answered, she found that it was the children visited by Caju, asking for help. Many had lost their homes during the landslides, others had lost their families and were living on the block of the Escola de Samba União Imperial, thatopened its doors to welcome homeless people.

Magda says that she understood this as some signal from God and, despite still being depressed, she got out of bed and said to herself, “I know how to help, and I will help”.

She started asking for donations in the markets to help those people, because, due to what she had been through, she knew what they needed and helped in every possible way. It was an intense work, with the help of many others.

Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, the work with the families affected by the landslide continued and was renamed Caju Project, in honor of Magda’s dear friend who died. It hasn’t stopped since that and has been in action for three years.

Magda says a little about what she thinks is most important about the project and what led her to create it. “What I most value about Caju Project is the hand that we give for people in need. What led me to create it was the need to have an initiative that served the family as a whole and respected each person’s moment and pain.”

Target Audience

Women, adolescents, children and families in situations of social vulnerability.

Activities offered by Caju Project

For women: conversation circles and entrepreneurship courses. For children: ballet, English and others. For teenagers: surfboard-making workshop.

Magda set the challenge of her journey to provide a better quality of life for the children she cares for, to train thinking adults and to empower women so that they know that each one of them has their own potential, so that they see their strength and, above all, that encourage and believe in your children’s dreams and feel motivated to the point of vibrating for their victory.

At the time of the interview, 100 of the most assisted people had become entrepreneurs and three had become MEI – Individual Microentrepreneur.