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Become Odara's mission is to empower people through storytelling. When our founder Ana Clara Otoni learned about the Women's Association of Capelinha (Associação de Mulheres de Capelinha, in Portuguese), located in the Jequitinhonha Valley, one of the most underserved communities in the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil), she immediately embraced it.

In part because she identified and connected with the challenge these women had faced, but also because Ana is from Capelinha. She was moved by the stories of resilience of these women who were overcoming depression, abusive relationships, domestic violence and abuse through education and art.

The Women's Association of Capelinha story's begins with the empowerment of a woman: Maria do Carmo, more known as Du.

After getting divorced from her ex-husband, Du needed to find ways to support her children. A friend of hers suggested a dressmaking and sewing course. 

“With a lot of effort, I was able to save up some money and managed to pay for the course. Soon after, I started to make some extra income with the sale of the underwear I was creating. Throughout the entire time, I just wanted to see my children being able to go to University. That was my dream”, tells Du. 

What she didn't imagine was that from her training not only her family but an entire tribe would be empowered. Du started to talk to the women in her community and noticed that they also needed other sources of income and, most importantly, these women needed activities that would take them out of their homes. 

"The women would arrive here depressed. Others had problems such as alcoholism, drug use, domestic violence, sexual abuse, malnutrition, unwanted pregnancy, illiteracy… Little by little, they would open up and share about their problems, and simply by sharing they would already feel better”, tells the founder Maria do Carmo (Du).

On January 29, 2003, the Women's Association of Capelinha was founded. Since then, thousands of courses have ministered and hundreds of women have been trained to dressmaking and sewing, and also in embroidery in artisanal production.