Occupation women launch collection with reused fabrics in Osasco

“It’s surreal to have a new profession after 40 (years)”. The surprised account of seamstress Mara Lopes is the result of a trajectory that involves collective organization and training opportunities. The difficulties imposed by the pandemic brought together women from Ocupação Esperança, in the city of Osasco, in the state of São Paulo, where they sought ways to become professional and improve their reality.

In 2021, Mara lost her job as a cook and, in the same year, through the initiative of the Movimento Luta Popular, of which she is a member, she helped to set up a sewing workshop on the land of the occupation. “Sewing is being very important because, in addition to learning a profession that I never thought I would learn, having an income through this new profession that I have now is really good”, she opines.

“When we managed to set up the space, we got the donation machines, we put it in the community group: we are with our project, those who want to learn, we are looking for partners to teach the course. Interested women started passing the names on,” she says.

One of them was Lucilene Amaral da Rocha, 32 years old, mother of three. She had only worked in home care until the start of the pandemic, made masks to supplement the family’s income and ended up finding a trade through the initiative of the collective workshop.

Among her sewing colleagues, Lucilene is called a teacher. “She excels at sewing, that’s where we get help. She says no, but she knows it is”, guarantees Mara, who emphasizes the importance of collective organization both for the construction of the workshop, which received donations, and for the group’s learning to sew, which benefits from the sharing of knowledge.

Fabrics, threads and needles

As soon as the idea for the workshop arose, the space received donations of industrial machinery and other equipment from the Union of Workers in the Federal Public Service in the State of São Paulo, in addition to donations from people who identified with the project, enabling the purchase of scraps of fabrics, threads, needle and scissors. The following year, in 2022, a partnership with the Social Service of Commerce (Sesc Osasco) resulted in the opportunity for women to be trained by the entrepreneurs of Atelier Mandarins.

“The difference (in participating in the collective workshop) is that, at home, I wouldn’t have the ability I have now. Because I wouldn’t have the best machines, I wouldn’t have knowledge of them (colleagues) and the knowledge that teachers passed on to me. I wouldn’t be doing what I can do today”, says Lucilene.

Currently, she is responsible for the household bills. But satisfaction goes beyond financial achievement. “I discovered a person I didn’t know was inside me. I’m feeling independent, capable. In the past, I didn’t even know how to fill out a CV because I never worked anywhere, just taking care of the kids. For me, today, this is being very important”, she opines.

Natalia Miranda, from Atelier Mandarins, highlights the collective sewing practice of this group of women. “Here became a place of conviviality, women came here and told stories and they talked about it a lot, that they also saw a place to share things in life. It was a time of day when they stopped taking care of the house and children, it was also the time to connect, to bond and at the same time to learn a trade, “she emphasizes.

“They unfolded very well, there is a striking difference from last year to now, they are very autonomous. They say that they have already made clothes for the family to sell and are now learning, in this experience, to share: how do you divide the work to flow better? The learning period (of sewing) is over and they are organizing themselves how to do a sewing production”, evaluates Natalia.

This entire trajectory motivated a clothing parade, held last Saturday (15), at a Sesc event, with the theme Circular Sewing. The experience Natália refers to encompasses the creation and production of a collection of pieces by a group of four women from the occupation, in recent weeks, together with Mandarins, inspired by street fairs, at the invitation of Sesc Osasco. Using reused fabrics, the seamstresses based their creations on the colors of fruits.

“They are learning how to create a collection, how to compose looks and color combinations. So, for example, dragon fruit has a pink part, with the balls part reminiscent of the fruit filling. From the fruits came the inspiration to develop the collection. All the material we are using is reused. We went after stores, suppliers, that sold leftover clothing, so there is also the issue of sustainability”, says Bárbara Gutmann, from Mandarins.

Social change

Claudete Greiner, Sesc’s sociocultural programmer, reflects on how significant the activities are in promoting social change. “When we are in a unit that is peripheral, there is this opportunity for you to make a difference within the community, because, after all, it is the Social Service (of Commerce). With the pandemic, in addition to being in the online world, we had to see what was happening out there. There was the action of the masks, which we hired seamstresses, cooperatives, this generated income and produced masks and we distributed them,” she emphasizes.

Next, she evaluates that this is a model to be expanded: going to the communities, identifying needs and participating in solutions. “I think this role of being within communities contributing is relevant. It’s not saying ‘we’re going there and we’re going to teach you how to do this’. The first thing is… listen, this was the first meeting I had with the girls: what do you need, what would be interesting for you?”, she says. She celebrated the result of the sewing training for the financial autonomy of the women from Ocupação Esperança.

Seamstress Maria José Sales Soares, known as Mara, 63 years old, also learned a new trade from the occupation workshop. The connections between the women’s demand and the opportunity for training in sewing came from her, that she participated in a live organized by Sesc to talk about the right to housing.

Coming from Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, with four children and a granddaughter after separating from her husband, she has lived in Osasco for 39 years and is a member of the Movimento Luta Popular. Today, she lives with her daughter and grandson, and her livelihood comes from sewing. Asked if being a seamstress made any difference in the family’s income, she replies: “wow, you can’t imagine! I was in that suffocation, really needing it”. During the pandemic, one of Mara’s daughters discovered an aneurysm and a cyst on her head.

Despite having a machine at home, she prefers to join her colleagues in the workshop to work. “I think it yields more, it’s good, right? There are times when we get angry with each other, but the partnership is very good. We do more, talk and help. If I don’t know, the other already knows. Here, we talk and have fun ”, she concludes.