Sewing against poverty

Burda Style and Burda Academia offer vocational sewing trainings to economically deprived people, fostering inclusive entrepreneurship in Brazil. By nature, sewing is the perfect tool to fight poverty: it can be performed from home, requires only a low investment, and is easy to learn and teach. As a business, it serves the family as well as the local community.

Intuitive method

The “learning by doing” methods used in classes allow even functionally illiterate participants to keep pace. All subjects rely on graphical information, immediate practice and creativity.

The programme teaches textile identification, body measurements, customisation of clothing and identifying pattern parts. However, all classes also focus on entrepreneurial issues, conveying basic concepts of pricing and business development. Finally, participants graduate with the confidence, knowledge and autonomy to start their own textile-based business.

Taking the brand legacy further

The training gives new life perspectives, not just teaching how to sew, but how to make a living out of sewing. “For me, emancipation means to live with a certain attitude. Feeling like an equal is what really counts,” already said founder of Burda Style, Aenna Burda.

The spirit of the magazine is more alive than ever, sparking enthusiasm in sewing and empowering people to be autonomous creators: “What I like most, are the 50 patterns in five different sizes. The tips of arts and crafts also help me a lot,” says magazine fan Nonnatho de Azevedo. He produces uniforms for a living and has been sewing with the patterns of Burda Style ever since he got to know the magazine.

Currently, running Burda Academia projects include 400 students hired by a workers union, 200 students from the institute Dom Bosco in Itaquera, São Paulo, sponsored by a credit card operator and 80 students hired by Volkswagen.