Fundação Ajuda em Ação and designer Roselyn Silva launch a charity collection in collaboration with Alstom Foundation

The Alstom Foundation, together with Alstom in Portugal and the Portuguese NGO Ajuda em Ação is developing the "Women in Action" project in the municipality of Loures, near Lisbon, Portugal. This initiative promotes self-employment activities for women facing the risk of social exclusion, by establishing a sewing training school and providing entrepreneurship and business training.

For its implementation, Alstom Foundation provides logistical assistance and finances the training staff, materials, sewing machines and other complementary activities, such as mentoring, events or visits to other projects and companies. As part of these activities, the 20 women participating in the project have worked hand to hand with Portuguese designer Roselyn Silva to create the patchwork fabrics used in the new Roselyn Silva´s collection, which has just presented in Lisbon.

The new collection includes five pieces developed in collaboration with the Ajuda em Ação Foundation, and the participants of its sewing and entrepreneurship programme financed by the Alstom Foundation.

The pieces in this solidarity capsule collection are therefore characterised by the patchwork details - a technique that consists of joining different patches together, composing various mixtures of colours, shapes and designs -. The new clothes did not lack the sustainable aspect either: all the pieces of fabric used for the patchwork came from previous collections, thus promoting the circular economy, something very important for the designer’s work and in line with Alstom’s mission.

Founded in 2007, the Alstom Foundation supports and finances projects proposed by Alstom employees and developed in partnership with local NGOs and non-profit organisations. The initiatives aim to improve the living conditions of communities near the group’s sites around the world. The Foundation’s projects focus on 4 axes: access to mobility, environmental protection, access to energy and water, and socio-economic development. In the 2023 edition, the Foundation Board received 240 proposals from 44 countries. Of these, the Foundation is funding 36 projects in 2023/2024, with a budget of €2.2 million. Find out more at the Alstom Foundation website.

Alstom has been present in Portugal for over 30 years and, currently, two out of three trains running in Portugal have been manufactured by Alstom or with Alstom technology, including high-speed, regional, metro and tram trains. In the digital sphere, more than 1,500 km of the Portuguese rail network and more than 500 on-board units are managed by Alstom ATP system, a signalling solution developed specifically for the Portuguese market. In terms of urban mobility, Alstom supplied the signalling system for Metro do Porto and manufactured the 102 first trains, currently operation in the network.

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