SAS Brasil was born in a Sertões International Rally. In 2013, a group of eight friends traveled in two cars carrying talents, a campaign tent and lots of information and of energy along the route of the competition. Back there, 1,500 people were benefited. In the latest edition, in 2019, we were 92 volunteers and more than 13,000 people were impacted.
Our volunteers also travel on autonomous expeditions, to dozens of cities in all regions of the country. We’ve already assisted people in municipalities in 14 Brazilian states, in the savanna ecoregion (Cerrado) or in the “outback” of the country (Sertão Nordestino), in the poor Vale do Paraíba region, in São Paulo State, or in the face of human and environmental emergencies such as in Mariana, São Joaquim de Bicas or Brumadinho, all in Minas Gerais State.
📈Check data and the profile of the benefited cities
With the federal regulation that authorized in March 2020 the use of telemedicine due to the pandemic, SAS Brasil also started offering medical and psychological care to people in socially vulnerable communities (favelas) of large cities.
Our essence today is the same as that of that initial eight people: 4WD, traveling, breathtaking landscapes, and, of course, lots of health, joy and sustainability for those in need. We attend cities with a low HDI (or below the State’s average), a population of less than 30,000 and a lack of access to public health, such as the absence of specialists or hospital structures. In telemedicine we serve people in slums and in vulnerable situations.
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Check how far we’ve gone
In 2020, with the new coronavirus pandemic, SAS Brasil had to cancel expeditions. Within a short time, we’ve developed our own and secure telemedicine platform in order to keep up the purpose of giving access to healthcare to socially vulnerable people. We started offering medical and psychological free assistance at a distance, preventing people from visiting health facilities, where the high risk of contagion was high.
Get to know SAS Brasil’s telemedicine project
The adoption of telemedicine was possible thanks to the its regulamentation due to the pandemic, in March 2020, by Brazil’s Ministry of Health ordinance 467, which authorizes direct digital contact between patients and their doctors. Beforehand, the virtual contact could only occur between health professionals at both ends. With telemedicine, SAS Brasil democratizes access to healthcare. Our teleconsultations are completely free and patients can schedule them by using a WhatsApp™ number publicized within the assisted communities. In early November 2020, more than 33,200 people had already been benefited.
A team of dozens of volunteers receives the WhatsApp™ messages and makes an initial screening to determine the priority. They schedule the appointment with a specialist doctor or a psychologist. By early November 2020, 16 medical specialties were being offered, in addition to six other health areas. The project also has a ground team in selected communities in the capitals of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Norte States. We remotely attend patients in dozens of cities in 18 States. Field professionals work fully attired and have equipment to check patients’ vital signs, when necessary.
Find out how far our telemedicine has gone
With telemedicine, we can go further, giving healthcare access to more people. From March to November 2020, more than 33,200 people had already been benefited! Check on the map where the people we assisted are.
SAS Brasil in the Sertões International Rally
A major offroad race held since 1992, the Sertões International Rally (now renamed Sertões) covers breathtaking scenarios in the states of the Brazilian hinterland, with a path that changes every year. Since the 21st edition, held in 2013, SAS Brasil participates bringing health and joy to populations along the route of the competition.
In 2014, we became the competition’s official social action. Up to 2019, the 7th edition of the Sertões International Rally in which we participated, we’ve impacted on those expeditions alone more than 29,400 people in 28 cities of 9 Brazilian States. Since 2013, we have traveled more than 38,300 km (or around 24,000 miles) together with the “ralizeiros” (rally competitors) bringing short-term and high-impact actions to the needed populations around the race.
On our blog: Our actions in the Sertões International Rally
Since 2016, in addition to the actions carried out alongside the offroad competition, SAS Brasil also organizes initial expeditions, in which a smaller team of professionals travels to get to know the route, deeply understand the needs and demands of the cities that will be assisted, train teachers and local health professionals and carry out the screening of gynecological and dermatological patients using telemedicine.
Our autonomous expeditions
In addition to the annual trips alongside the Sertões International Rally, we carry out autonomous actions without a defined periodicity, always partnering with the cities’ public administration or with organizations that take care of the local populations. In both cases, our volunteers travel in 4WD cars, taking medical equipment and a complete entertainment structure to the places. Beside our 4WD cars, we travel with mobile units, which are adapted with complete medical offices and all the infrastructure for providing healthcare and for the assembling of our mobile cinema.
Find out where our expeditions have been
Each pin on our expeditions map recounts stories of lives we’ve touched and helped to change with our actions. In each city, hundreds or thousands of people were impacted by the actions. More than 55 thousand people have already benefited!
During the pandemic, SAS Brasil adapted one of its mobile units, which were out of use due to the cancellation of expeditions and face-to-face actions, and transformed it into an itinerant blood center, which traveled around the capital and Greater São Paulo collecting blood donations. By mid-September 2020, more than 2,100 people had already donated in the unit, potentially benefiting thousands of people in need of blood transfusion.
Discover more about our itinerant blood bank
Precisely because of the isolation imposed by the pandemic, blood stocks have reached worrying levels. Even before covid-19, the scenario was already critical. Data from the Brazilian Ministry of Health show that only 1.6% of the Brazilian population donates blood – the equivalent of only 16 per 1,000 people. The ideal rate, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), is 5%. The itinerant blood center is a SAS Brasil action sponsored by Roche.
Find out where our blood bank has been
Each pin on the map is a location that received the adapted unit for blood collection. Our itinerant blood bank ran more than 4,100 km (2,500 mi) over a period of about 2 months.