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I started working when I was 14 years old. I had no choice, I used to work delivering sugarcanes.
There was a sugarcane deposit right next to my house.
I found it to be fun because I used to go to fairs and I would get some food,
besides my payment, which wasn't that much but still helped me.
It was there that I started developing this thought that we have to work to have something.
My name is Rauny Antonio de Bryto and I live next to the Saúde neighborhood,
a low-income community, which I think needs my assistance.
I had my first official job when I was 17 years old. I served in the Army and then worked
in a fast food company, and from there I worked at a restaurant inside a shopping mall.
It was there that I found out I wanted to bea cook. During this time, as a sub-manager,
I was accepted in the university and got a two year scholarship. I would have continued until
graduation but the university closed down, making it impossible to continue.
There were also several problems that caused its closure and when I left this university,
I was also going through some family problems that destabilized my family.
It was my mom, who got sick. She had a terminal cancer. What destabilized me the most wasn't
the fact that she was sick, but the fact that she could get better.
It was there that we would get our strength. What unmotivated me, for almost a year and a half,
was the fact that she needed medication, she needed a biopsy and we actually got the medication.
But that happened only after a tough struggle that had been going on for 6 months,
and I only got the medication the day we were burying her.
We got a letter to go get the medication, which had arrived. I remember it still today,
it was on March 17. But then my family saw I was the youngest and they told me not to get down.
"We will find another university for you." But I wasn't strong enough to continue.
But that was when I told myself, "I'm a good guy, I have potential."
Since I didn't get any help from anyone, from the government I know I can't count on,
that was when I saw that a way to help others was through an NGO because an NGO doesn't depend
on the government alone, it depends on several factors. And with that realization I thought,
"I will continue".
Gastromotiva is an organization that believes in the power and responsibility of gastronomy
as an agent of change, capable of transforming lives and places.
The organization spreads the social gastronomy movement and conducts programs of professional
empowerment, with the support of gastronomic market networks and social investors.
Today, I have an income. I cook pastries and appetizers and I also help out in parties
as a freelance waiter, cook; if necessary I'll go. During a period, I was working with
this, so I could leave my job at a hotel. I saw it was working out, I had several orders,
so my sister told me, "there's nothing better than to take this course".
The selection process was very complex for me because I entered the process kind of knowing
that when you fill it out, you say "Whatever God wishes." But instead of thinking that,
I said let's put into his hands and see what happens.
I wanted to know more about Gastromotiva and when I visited , I saw that they had a great
structure in terms of people who work and collaborate with the organization
Every class is always unexpected. We have a recipe to develope as a group during the
class period , so if you can't work in a group, or if your productivity is low,
the group is a way to make things happen, but is also a way for you to get lost, because if if none
of you have a direction then several people without direction don't go anywhere.
The course seems to be very fast because of the time period. It's only four months of
classes but in these four months you learn a lot, and you can learn even more if you
apply the knowledge gained outside of the classroom.
Here, we have 5 hours per day, but where you live, or even at work, you can see how much
time you have available to develop even more. We even create a preconception of the course
and since I have already worked in different areas in the kitchen, we see the Chef as a
person who gives wrong information to us. We already arrive with our vices so it's hard
for someone who works in the kitchen or has already worked, to accept what's being said.
I started at Gastromotiva with the intention of getting better, to cook a better cake or
even just learn how to decorate a cake. When I arrived I saw that it was a very small thought
because their ideology is a lot bigger. We only think about helping one person and they
think about helping a million.
Gastromotiva believes that education is a key element for change, and offers courses to professionally
empower young talent and supports micro-entrepreneurs.
Daily inspiration comes from the idea of disseminating the potential and amplifying
the social responsibility through gastronomy, and in this way, rethinking the market and transforming lives.
My life was very messy. It didn't have a goal to reach. It was just one day after the other,
always the same, and these days were becoming monotonous and I didn't want that for me anymore.
I would go to work, leave work, go home and rest. The other day, I would wake up early,
come back and rest. There was no break in the routine, just always the same thing.
And so I realized that I needed something different. Working, for me, is not only working
the body and making a salary. You also have to improve professionally.
Improve who you are, as a person. First of all, I want to create a project, a social project.
That's something I want while I'm still part of Gastromotiva.
After Gastromotiva, I want to have this structure, this valueable information that I'm getting
here and then work, work on this cause and
give my best and see where it takes me. I want my life to be a lesson for other people
and my experience in gastronomy to be a way to help as well. I really believe in this
and it motivates me. My story motivates but I don't want to tell it to others and have
them simply be moved by it. That's not it. I want to show it's possible. If I can do
it, and I don't have a lot, but I have this idea of helping people then anyone can do it.
Imagine if there where a lot with this same thought, I think it would be easier.
But, if working at it is possible, which is what I believe in, then let's work and try.
The professional empowerment course is the main dish at Gastromotiva. It has transformed
and will continue to transform the lives of hundreds of teenagers, like Rauny.
He finished his course in 2013, and is now using all his learned knowledge to make a
difference in the lives of those who live in his community.