Giullia Jaques Caldeira

Giullia Jaques is a 19 year old leader from Brazil currently attending Babson College, in Massachusetts, as a Global Scholar. Born and raised in Belford Roxo, Giullia has witnessed how education can change one’s life. Giullia has long had an entrepreneurial spirit. When she was 14, her mother lost her job as a secretary, and to help make ends meet, Giullia began selling a traditional Brazilian chocolate dessert, brigadeiro, on the streets. She would make the treats herself and then sell about 120 every day for 18 cents apiece. At Latin American Leadership Academy’s Peru Leadership Bootcamp in August 2019, Giullia consolidated her passion for social justice and her networking skills by founding Absorvidas, aiming to provide eco-friendly period products and menstrual education to inmates. After working for almost a year on getting people to join her team and support the idea, Absorvidas launched a crowdfunding campaign to fundraise thirty thousand reais in thirty days. Having met its fundraising goal in seventeen days, Absorvidas first plans to provide 2,000 reusable menstrual pads to the prison, along with lectures and written materials to educate about menstruation. Absorvidas eventually wants to partner with a foundation that works with inmates to train them to make the pads themselves. That would allow the women to no longer be dependent on outside donations of menstrual products. Making the pads also would allow them to earn money, both while in prison and once they are released.

Giullia was selected as a participant in the 2021 Voces Que Inspiran.