Luciana Mascarenhas: Every donation counts
Luciana Mascarenhas is more than just a world traveler—as if that wasn’t already impressive enough. While traveling for fun and admiring the natural wonders of the places she visits, she’s also been a committed Dressember advocate, participating in the style challenge this year for the fourth time. Her passion for environmental and social justice has followed her to all the countries she’s lived in and visited—from Sweden to Brazil to Morocco to Finland, where she resides currently.
While studying in Sweden, Luciana joined a Dressember team with her former master’s colleague, focusing mainly on raising awareness. In her first two years participating in the Dressember fundraising campaign, she didn’t raise much money. Luciana felt discouraged in her third year as a Dressember advocate, living in a new city in Sweden after studying abroad.
Determined to live out her purpose, Luciana decided not to give up and to continue to make the world a better place by helping others through Dressember, and in so doing working through her own feelings of isolation and problems adjusting.
Although Luciana felt a bit discouraged through this transition, this was a pivotal moment in her life. Luciana’s commitment to ending human trafficking involved more than putting on a dress for the entire month of December. It meant that she could help others while also helping herself.
“My strategy took the focus off of the amount of money donated, and instead gave importance to the act of donating, no matter the amount.”
Luciana’s passion for justice and freedom encouraged her to take on the Dressember challenge wholeheartedly, this time adding her own unique twist to it. After seeing the increasing numbers of homeless people in her home city, São Palo, she decided she would donate one menstrual hygiene kit for homeless women for each donation she received for her Dressember fundraiser.
“I think people were encouraged because they probably feel ashamed of donating too little, but can’t afford to donate larger amounts,” Luciana said. “My strategy took the focus off of the amount of money donated, and instead gave importance to the act of donating, no matter the amount, because that would also mean one more homeless woman being supplied with sanitary pads.”
“It is simply fantastic that Dressember allows any individual to create positive impact, without having to work for an NGO or big international organizations.”
Luciana’s involvement with Dressember helped her understand that the small contributions of thousands of advocates can add up and make a big impact. Since she’s grown accustomed to splitting her life and network between Brazil, Sweden, the rest of Europe and the world, Luciana has mainly used social media to inform others and garner support for her advocacy. Posting facts about human trafficking and sharing her vision for a better future help Luciana connect with people around her network over the cause.
From Luciana’s advocacy, she has noticed that people will donate if they are committed to the cause and if they care about the advocate. Luciana also noticed people will be incentivized to donate when there is a tangible benefit attached, “even if it’s not for them.” The impact that these donations can make on the world is a real-life example of the power of everyday advocacy.
Things look different for Luciana this year, living in a new city during a pandemic. She has had the chance to really appreciate the impact she can have by advocating online with Dressember. Since she’s involved herself with advocacy, Luciana has found an interest in working for a nonprofit organization in the future.
For Luciana, Dressember became a way to externalize her values for fighting injustice as concrete actions.
“It is simply fantastic that Dressember allows any individual to create positive impact, without having to work for an NGO or big international organizations,” Luciana said.
Her influence and contributions have made a big impact within the community and within herself. Through this transitional moment of her life, Luciana is wearing summer dresses to call attention to her advocacy.
For Luciana, living out her purpose, which she says is to make the world a better place, has helped her understand the tools and skills she has at hand to help create a safer place for all people. “It’s brilliant, and truly inspiring to be part of Dressember,” Luciana said.
Now, Luciana shares her outfits on her Instagram in hopes to continue sharing the positive impact an individual can have just by wearing a dress and speaking up for victims and survivors.
About the Author
Daniela (D) Molina is a Cuban gal pursuing a M.S. in Journalism at Indiana University. Since she was young she knew that words had power. She absolutely loves moths and is proud to speak Spanish with whoever she meets.