Associação Aliança Empreendedora

Tecendo Sonhos 

Promoting respectable labor relations for immigrants working in the São Paulo fashion supply chain  

An estimated 10 to 100 thousand laborers work in sweatshops in Brazil that employ manual laborers in slave-like conditions. The vast majority are Bolivian immigrants based in São Paulo. With the increasingly shorter life cycles of fashion collections and the need to deliver products faster and faster, retailers have begun to contract smaller businesses. At the end of the supply chain are the small  sweatshops belonging to undocumented immigrants who have no knowledge of the local language and end up working under abusive conditions.

Aliança Empreendedora assists businesses, civil society organizations and local governments to develop inclusive business models and projects that support low-revenue, small businesses. The Aliança aims to generate new business and work opportunities, in turn promoting inclusion and socioeconomic development.

With support from BrazilFoundation, Aliança Empreendedora plans to:

-Support immigrants in management and entrepreneurialism by applying Aliança’s methodology for small business development;
-Advocate for immigrants in partnership with  COETRAE / SP (the São Paulo State Commission for the Erradication of Slave Labour)

IMPACT

-95 direct beneficiaries: shopowners, entrepreneurs, and immigrants
-3300 immigrants benefited indirectly

“More often than not, the business owner is a Bolivian immigrant who saved up his money, purchased the  sewing equipment, and brought his relatives to Brazil to work in these conditions.” -Aliança Empreendedora team