Brazilian president and re-election candidate Jair Bolsonaro (3-R), accompanied by the co-founder of the Havan department store chain businessman Luciano Hang (2-R), attends a campaign rally in Joinville, Santa Catarina State, Brazil, on October 1, 2022, on the eve of the presidential election. Brazilians go to the polls Sunday in South America's biggest economy, plagued by gaping inequalities and violence, where voters ar expected to choose between far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, any of which must garner 50 percent of valid votes, plus one, to win in the first round. (Credit: Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Luciano Hang, the retail billionaire who transformed a 45-square-meter fabric shop in Brusque into Brazil's largest domestic department store chain, stepped inside an empty emergency care unit in the coastal city of Barra Velha on October 8 and did what no government notice could accomplish: he pledged R$1 million on the spot, then let the room respond.
It did. Within minutes, local business owners began rising to announce their own contributions. By the time the session wrapped, pledges totaled R$2.2 million — clearing the main financial obstacle standing between Barra Velha and the opening of its first dedicated 24-hour emergency care unit.
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