The spirit of serving is the main characteristic of the Odebrecht Foundation. One of Brazil’s oldest corporate foundations is completing 45 years of history in 2010 and reaffirming its mission: “To educate youth for life, through work and with orientations on values and limits”.

On December 31, 1965, the then Emílio Odebrecht Foundation was created to guarantee the families of Construtora Norberto Odebrecht Members the benefits that social security did not provide. Over the following years, the foundation indirectly paid for medical and hospital, urgent care, dental, pharmaceutical, educational and recreational costs. Its first president was Emilton Moreira Rosa.

With the growth in the number of Members to 20,000 in 1978, the support centers created to provide the workers and their family members with assistance reached a record 19.

In 1982, the foundation changed the focus of its actions to issues of public interest. The idea was to mobilize intelligences all over Brazil, holding awards and promoting political and academic debates with aims of reducing social problems.

The Emilio Odebrecht Foundation (FEO) Award was created to grant research scholarships, offer project sponsorships and hold meetings on worker-focused issues. In the first edition of the award, the theme was “The Productivity of the Brazilian Worker”.