Meet Casa Tupinambá, OR’s social project in Sauípe/BA

Associação Mãos Nativas is a group of about 20 female artisans operating in Vila Sauípe, coastal region of the State of Bahia. In order to assist this association, OR has developed the Casa Tupinambá project. The name refers to the region’s ancestry and the rescue of the culture of the Tupinambás Indians, which is the inspiration for the products made by the Association. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the culture of straw-braiding and positively influence the community around the enterprise Reserva Sauípe. The project includes the construction of a headquarter to be at Eco Parque Sauípe, so that the female artisans can perform their work and sell them in the same place, in addition to enhancing the tourist route of the Park.

In addition, the artisans are also being provided with guidance from straw production to commercial training – with notions in business management, finance, marketing, e-commerce and Secretary service,  which are grounds necessary for the business to be sustainable and for the artisans to be able to live off the income of handicraft. Maria Cristina Silva, 46, is the current president of Mãos Nativas and says it all began in 2009, when a group of women came together to produce handicrafts with straw. Since that time, they have been able to make the product nationally recognized and even sold abroad. “This course offered by OR has been very important to us. We worked as an association, but we did not know how to work as a team. Today we finally managed to create a profile on Instagram for our collective use, where we exhibited our production and we received some orders,” says Cristina.

Ana Valéria Nascimento, from the Personnel team, of the Northeast regional branch and coordinator of the project, points out that there was also an incentive for other women from the community to join the group. There was a movement to perceive the value of other artisans in the region throughout the project, which motivated them to join the Association.

The conception of Casa Tupinambá was created by Bernardo Bastos, OR’s architect, and the work started on May 18, with completion planned for June 30, under the leadership of Alan Caires. The project has been supported by a multidisciplinary working group, formed by the areas of Construction, Incorporation, Environment, Marketing and Legal areas.

In order to give even more strength to Casa Tupinambá, Luciana Galeão, designer who is acting as a consultant for the project, in the product development and marketing fronts, invited the architect Celeste Leão and brand strategist thinker Isabela Marotto to be the godmothers of this project and use their experience to benefit other women.

They also assist as consultants for the Josilene Menezes project, working in the administrative, financial and organizational management training, and Adriano Costa, who supports the communication and marketing fronts, including in the e-commerce development, which is already working through the Association’s account on Instagram: @maosnativasoficial.

According to Eduardo Pedreira, Superintendent Director of OR in the Northeast, “OR always aims to generate positive impacts for the communities surrounding our developments and the Northern Coast region is very rich, especially for tourism. Promoting local culture is of fundamental importance, especially when it comes to the economy of this population. This project is our way of giving back, because it values the local culture through creative economy, which is also sustainable and benefits the people responsible for developing this beautiful work and history that is craftsmanship”.