On the 16th of July I was privileged to participate in a roundtable discussion as part of the group of Young Leaders in Recife with members of the consulate of the United States in Brazil and the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta S. Jacobson, who came to visit Brazil. The objective of the round table was to give Roberta our view of the current scenario in the northeast of Brazil, since it was the first time she was visiting Recife.

Before the roundtable a member of the project Oi Kabum presented some posters that they had worked on to raise awareness racism as a huge issue we have to work on.
We all expressed our opinions and heard Roberta’s during the roundtable. The topics of the discussion were mainly about Brazil: education, including English as a second language, protests, corruption and the mindset shift that has happened recently in Brazil in regards of complacency with government issues.  It was very interesting to hear everyone’s opinion about the topics.

Members of the Consulate:

• Roberta S. Jacobson - US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
• Todd Chapman - vice ambassador from US in Brazil
• Heidi Arola - consul from US in Brazil
• Brian Bedsworth - vice consul from US in Brazil

Young Leaders:

• Guilherme Cavalcanti - CEO at CESAR-PAR
• Renata Accioly – AMCHAM - Products and Services - Recife
• Gilse Arruda – UFPE Student / Works at the consulate in Recife
• Fabio Pereira – entrepreneur and IT Lead Consultant at ThoughtWorks Sydney/Recife