Embedded Files
Every year, 17 million Brazilian women experience gender-based violence. Every minute, 8 women are physically abused. Brazil has a comprehensive legal framework for Gender based Violence (GBV) response, yet implementation consistently fails where public services are underfunded, frontline workers undertrained, and inter-agency coordination absent. Women who do seek help face long waits, geographic barriers, and a fragmented system where legal and psychological services rarely connect.
About the organisation
At the core of Mapa do Acolhimento (Map of care) is a model of a solidarity-driven support system connecting women facing gender-based violence to the support they seek / may need. Founded in 2016 as a unit within NOSSAS, Mapa started with operating a technology-enabled volunteer network through which women experiencing gender-based violence could access help via Mapa’s platform, regardless of their location in Brazil. Mapa became independent from NOSSAS in 2023 and has since expanded its mandate to include government technical assistance, frontline worker training, and advocacy across 15 Brazilian states. To date, Mapa has registered 14,000+ volunteers, supported 5,000+ women directly, mapped 3,000+ women's support services (Brazil's largest database of its kind), and delivered volunteer support hours valued at USD 768,000. They receive support from Co-Impact, Chanel Foundation, OAK Foundation, French Embassy and Canadá Embassy.
Lígia Batista
Co-Director
Ana El Kadri
Co-Director
Headquarters: Brazil
Geographies:
Brazil
Domains:
Equity
Journey of Exponential Change
Mapa’s belief is that when a woman undergoing GBV seeks and receives support, it restores their agency, puts them on a path of empowerment and they eventually become the support system for other women around them. Mapa believes a critical element of breaking the cycle of violence is bridging the gap between seeking and receiving support, at scale. To do so, Mapa envisions millions of micro (local) networks “Care circles” who take simple actions that enhance the effectiveness of local public services, provide immediate support when needed, bring awareness around GBV and energise the community by turning anger into hope. This local care circle can start with family and expand to neighbours, local civil society actors and even local lawmakers – all entities who care deeply about the women around them and are, in turn, affected by the perpetuation of the violence cycle. These micro networks may loosely exist even today, but they need a shared objective, support (tools, capacity building, resources), more actors to join them – ways to build a closer knit, higher- functioning network. Many such micro-networks then work together to build a macro narrative for “No gender-based violence” for the country. On their exponential change journey, MAPA is reimagining how to catalyse such micro-networks and then enable them to build the shared narrative.
The Big Quest:
How can we build a sustainable ecosystem for all women survivors of violence (18+), with a special focus on low-income and racialised women, that ensures access to support services and promotes the full recovery of their autonomy and agency?
Building on its learning journey with C4EC, Mapa do Acolhimento has been developing prototypes and initiatives that position it as a system orchestrator—working across multiple actors and stakeholders within the gender-based violence (GBV) response ecosystem in Brazil. Its work is structured across three core strategies:
Service provision: supporting a national network of volunteer psychologists and lawyers who provide free, trauma-informed support to women survivors of GBV. Mapa plays a strategic role in building the capacity of this network and providing ongoing support, ensuring that survivors receive high-quality and timely care.
Government cooperation: establishing technical cooperation agreements with State Secretariats for Women’s Policies—specialized public bodies at the state level in Brazil responsible for coordinating GBV response policies. Through this strategy, Mapa co-creates solutions to strengthen policy implementation and provides technical training to municipal managers and frontline professionals across public services (including social assistance, health, public safety, and justice), who are directly engaged in supporting survivors.
Mobilisation: developing solutions that strengthen the work of grassroots activists and community-based feminist collectives who are already responding to GBV in their territories—enabling local coordination, awareness-building, and community-based support systems.
Across these three strategies, Mapa is working to strengthen the overall system—enhancing its capacity to respond, coordinate, and learn. The long-term intent is to contribute to a self-sustaining ecosystem, where multiple actors are equipped to act, collaborate, and evolve—reducing reliance on Mapa as a central actor over time.
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