ENRAIZAR programme

Monte João Preto Romany Community, Boliqueime

The story of our work with the Romany community of Monte João Preto, in Boliqueime, began some time in August 2020. A discussion of ideas at Casulo – Social Innovation Incubator – generated our initial desire to get to know the young people in this community. The Caminhos II project, run by Fundação António Aleixo, then opened the door for us to put forward the idea for our programme. This pilot project was aimed at producing a piece through the teaching of crochet, so that the young participants could learn, train, and eventually use the technique for themselves in the future. At the end of the programme the final piece would be auctioned and a share of the revenue invested in crochet materials for them to continue their practice.

We spent four months meeting with the young members of the community. To begin with, most of them were interested in learning. By the halfway point, some had dropped out while others persisted. In the end, a group of six of us continued to meet, each working on individual sections that would later be joined together to form a unique final piece. With plenty of laughter, conversation, curiosity and, on a couple of occasions, some live music, our friendship grew, and the tradition of crochet was kept alive through this circle of shared knowledge.

Of note, too, was the evolution in the capacity for concentration that we observed in the group, from the very first day through to completion of the project.

The group’s work ended up turning into a beautiful and colourful shawl. It was the product of teamwork between members of MÔÇES and this group of young women who afterwards agreed, with big smiles, to take part in a photo shoot at a studio made available by Loulé Criativo. 

While the programme itself came to an end, we continue to assist the women whenever necessary, to help them in what could be the establishment of their own workplace.