Ana Kátia Ferreira

Brazil

Trip:

Brazil

Mentored by:

René Jones

Business

Founder, Apoena Clothing

Ana Kátia started Apoena Clothing in 2003, a collective brand representing 168 women artisans in disadvantaged communities around Brasilia.

Apoena's clothing products integrate traditional embroidery techniques and have been featured at Rio de Janeiro’s Fashion Week. Ana Kátia gives back to her employees by providing education to their children through the Proeza Institute’s Women and Children at School Project (Projeto Mulheres e Crianças na Escola). 

 

2014 Update:

Since her time in the Global Ambassadors Program, Ana Kátia has created a women's center in a town on the outskirts of Brasilia- Recanto das Emas. There, she assists women victims of violence and their children.
 
Ana Kátia also attended a meeting sponsored by the Inter-American Foundation and is the leader of the group's social business department. With them, she created a network of 16 organizations based in Brazil and asked at a public hearing before Congress that a law be proposed to benefit social businesses with funding and a differentiated tax burden. As a result of her lobbying, the organization that stimulates exports in Brazil (APEX Brazil) created a Department for Sustainable Projects that supports a program for women entrepreneurs.

 

Mentored by:

René Jones

United States of America

Trip: Brazil