ONG Te Protejo

We are the only local organization working on ending animal testing for cosmetics in Latin-America, taking the lead on: Cruelty-Free certification program, bringing awareness to more Latin-American consumers to help them choose cruelty-free products, and sustainable development of eco-beauty events and fairs.
We work on four main areas of impact that aim to cover all the stakeholders of the ecosystem of the cosmetic industry, from consumers, to producers and retailers:
Awareness: Responsible for making available the greatest amount of data and information that a person may need to change their consumption habits.
Certification: We certify companies that are not tested on animals, to establish a Latin-American standard that companies should guide themselves on since 2013.
Alliances: We engage in communication partnerships and consultancies with companies and retailers and develop events and fairs, to showcase brands and companies doing good work on these matters.
Advocacy: We promote public initiatives to end animal testing for cosmetics, by working with key stakeholders of the cosmetic industry and public and governmental entities and promoting bills and other public policies to end animal testing.

Our mission is to raise awareness among the population through responsible consumption, and initiatives that respect the environment and animals in the cosmetic and personal hygiene industry, and our vision is to expand the work of NGO Te Protejo throughout Latin-America, empowering those who consume to make conscious decisions with animals and the environment, to achieve a sustainable cosmetic industry free of animal cruelty.

There’s no other organization like us working on Cruelty Free awareness in Latin-America. We have been working for over eleven years, being the first organization to raise awareness of this issue in Spanish, when all the information on the issue back in 2012 was in English. We focus on connecting and aligning the different stakeholders in the beauty industry to make changes intended to last. This has led us to create a new category in the cosmetic industry, related to “cruelty free”, retailers, consumers and brands seek this label as a meaningful differentiation tool.

We differentiate ourselves from other organizations by using positive and inclusive communication focused on the solution of our issue: Certification of Cruelty free cosmetics, to avoid suffering of laboratory animals, better understanding and explanation of cosmetic ingredients, addressing the lack of transparency in the ingredients in the products, consulting brands to improve their environmental impact of cosmetics packaging and production, and we work on gender campaigning to fight inequality and perpetuation of gender stereotypes in the cosmetic industry. This unique approach has been successful in our community, helping them to question their consumption decisions and changing their options not only in the beauty industry but also in other areas of impact like the food they eat or the clothes they wear.