Élas Social

Posted by Fabíola Colombo, Univates/ Élas Social April 26 2020 0 Local experience

Our social business was born from the common dream of the three partners (designer Fernanda, social worker Carine and administrator Fabíola) and has as main objective to generate income for women from needy communities using fashion as a tool for transforming lives.

Since September 2019, we have benefited 15 women from Bairro Santo Antonio in Lajeado / RS, through the generation of value and income. Women in this peripheral neighborhood live daily with high rates of crime, domestic violence and lack of access to opportunities in general due to the place where they live.

Together with them, we design and manufacture pieces for fashion and home, developed from reused materials. Our products are made with Love and designed for consumers who are aware of socio-environmental issues, who value sustainability and the social value generated by work.

The activities carried out in our workshops go beyond training a new job and generating income. Women's empowerment also occurs due to dynamics involving physical, mental and spiritual health, non-violent communication, sex education, cognitive development and empowerment of skills in all areas. From this income and learning, women start to contribute to the support of the family, envision new realities and take the first step to break a cycle of vulnerability, starting with themselves and extending to the family and the community where they are inserted.

The demand for our products is growing, and there is a waiting list of women in situations of vulnerability wishing to join our workshops. But we face constant limitations. To make a workshop day feasible, for example, we organized a task force to load the bags with our materials to a borrowed place, where we improvised tables, work area and space for the children who accompany their mothers. We collect everything at the end of the day. We start again. Our tools are few, and old.

We can and we want to impact more, and for that we need to invest not only in tools, but also in platforms to leverage sales, and the realization of our own dreamed space.


Leveraging ÉLAS also means enhancing opportunities for inspiration for women, public agencies and society in general. We believe in the importance of sharing stories, alerting women to challenges in Brazil and in the world - sometimes neglected - and showing in practice that there are ways to improve realities.

Help us so that more women benefit, leaving the position of victim and becoming protagonists of their own history.

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