Textile Skills for 40 Marginalized Women in Brazil

The Eldorado Textile Project continues to provide local women with a supportive community that has been a great help to them during the Coronavirus pandemic. They were very grateful that our teacher, Carol, managed to travel to ACER Brasil in August to distribute materials so that they could continue to embroider at home, and they posted photos of their new work on their WhatsApp group that demonstrate just how much their skills and creativity have developed over the past three years.

Our teacher and coordinator, Carol, writes:

'We never imagined experiencing a pandemic and going through such a long period of social isolation. During all this time, we managed to continue our freestyle embroidery work and the group remained virtually active, which was very important both for continuing to give our community social support and for helping to finance the project.

Soon we will be meeting face-to-face again, a moment which we’ve all been waiting for. Safety measures for the welfare of all the women and their families will be followed. I think that with the return of face-to-face activities, the women will come full of a desire to work and create, and that the project will grow from strength to strength.’

Thanks to a generous donation, we now have a new dedicated workspace with better ventilation and lighting and industrial standard equipment that can be used for both the women’s group and for a new vocational course in textiles for local young people. At the beginning of August, the executive team at ACER Brasil developed a full sanitary plan in accordance with both World Health Organisation and local State and Municipal guidelines so that we could safely restart activities. After much lobbying, ACER Brasil has now been given official authorisation to reopen, and the women are delighted to be returning next week. Their first job will be a commission, enabled by a donation from an ex-ACER volunteer, to make masks and sports bibs for ACER’s large sporting community of children and young people so that they are able to resume their sporting activities more safely.