ASILE Civil Society Group

ADUS – Brazil

Description of organisation 

ADUS is an NGO that offers free services that help asylum seekers and refugees to integrate in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo and into the Brazilian society. The services provided are:

  • Portuguese Courses, which have two levels and two months’ duration each, offered four times yearly and are specially formatted to the student’s profile.
  • The ‘Job Consultancy team’ prepares asylum seekers and refugees for job interviews, assists on building and improving their CVs, contacts employers that would be willing to hire asylum seekers and refugees from Adus and connects these two groups.
  • The ‘Rights Consultancy team’ offers legal advice to the beneficiaries, mediate simple conflicts and point courts and other legal free services where they can find more coercive ways to settle their disputes.

 In 2018, our services assisted 1283 asylum seekers and refugees: the Portuguese Course had 391 students enrolled from 30 countries, the ‘Job Consultancy’ contacted 90 employers and prepared 421 job seekers from 14 countries, and the ‘Rights Consultancy’ offered legal advice to 125 persons from 36 countries. Insituto Adus, collects from individuals and enterprises’ donations and revenue from events, an average of R$ 300.000,00 per year (around U$ 80.000,00 in March 2019).

The institute has a special treatment with regards to vulnerable groups that seek our help. First, we have exclusive Portuguese Classes just for women, which has proven to have a better impact in their academic results in contrast with the mixed classes. In the Rights Consultancy and Job Consultancy services, we have female volunteers attending migrant women, creating a safer & friendly environment that helps to address more easily and efficiently to migrant women’s specificities. With regards to children’s needs, they are addressed when their parents come to Adus looking for assisting, especially on guidance to educational and health care public services.

Staff Profile

Mr. Marcelo Haydu

Founder and Executive Director of ADUS

Executive-Director, PhD in Public Health, Master in Social Science and Graduate in International Relations. He works with refugees since 2007, has specialized knowledge and experience in social projects, human resources management, project management, relationship with enterprises and government, reads texts in English and Spanish.

Mr. Sidarta Martins

Financial Director and lawyer of ADUS

He works with refugees since 2013, has specialized knowledge in refugee rights, human rights, collective judicial actions, relationship with international actors, project management and remote work. Fluent English, able to speak and to read in French and Spanish, and to read in Italian.