Odebrecht Foundation
The Odebrecht Foundation (Fundação Odebrecht) is a private Brazilian institution founded in 1965 by Norberto Odebrecht, the engineer who started the Odebrecht company in 1944. It was created to provide benefits for company members that Brazil’s Social Security system did not offer or only partly covered.
In 1988, the foundation began focusing on preparing young people for life, since adolescence is a key time for shaping character. By 2000, its work had helped about 500,000 adolescents and 12,000 educators in several Brazilian states. That year it began concentrating its efforts in the Brazilian Northeast, especially in areas with low human development and little economic activity.
It works in the Southern Bahia lowlands, a region with very low development indicators and little social investment. The foundation runs the Integrated and Sustainable Regional Development program for the Southern Bahia lowlands, aiming to build productive, human, social and environmental capital, while valuing family life and prioritizing adolescents and their interactions with their families. Its actions focus on developing four kinds of capital in communities of all income levels: productive, human, social and environmental.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:02 (CET).