Brava: Mayor considers the possibility of creating a project identical to that of “Renda Brava” focused on embroidery

The mayor of Brava said today that after the consolidation of the “Renda Brava” project, an identical project could be created for embroidery on the island, with a view to increasing the value of the product.

Francisco Tavares made this statement in an interview with Inforpress, as a balance of his visit to some municipalities in Portugal and the ideas that can be applied on the island, after his participation in the 1st Meeting of Creative Cities and Sustainable Development, which took place from 12 to 15 de Abril, in the municipality of Castelo Branco, in Portugal.

According to the mayor, the municipality of Castelo Branco invited the municipality of Brava to participate in the meeting, knowing that the Cape Verdean island also produces embroidery.

The participation of the mayor of Brava in the 1st Meeting of Creative Cities and Sustainable Development was one of the activities included in the candidacy process for embroideries in Castelo Branco as a UNESCO Heritage Site.

At this meeting, he highlighted that it was possible to see in practice the development of the embroidery industry and the weight that it has in the municipality of Castelo Branco, but also to know the experiences of the invited countries, namely South America, Morocco, Ukraine, Mexico, Brazil, several Portuguese cities, Spain, France, and Cape Verde, present with a delegation from the municipalities of Praia and Brava.

With the embroidery experience witnessed at the meeting, the mayor stressed that in parallel there is the Renda Brava project, defending that something similar should be done for embroidery, recognizing that things in Brava are “more difficult” to happen.

But, he added that after consolidating the Renda Brava project, an experience for embroidery will be launched.

“The experience of Castelo Branco, even knowing that we are talking about other dimensions, other resources, but the valorization of embroidery is something tremendous, since there is an industry operating, from the production of silk thread to embroidery, a center interpretation of embroidery with several people working on the production of embroidery pieces”, said the mayor, noting that the place is very visited by tourists.

In this sense, he stressed that "it is possible to create something like that for lace and embroidery, taking into account that there is already an experience that is running like a fish, making people start to see these areas as a source of income".

Still in Castelo Branco, he informed that he had institutional meetings with the president and vice-president of the local city council and with a social association, leaving open the possibility of traveling councilors from the municipality of Brave to Castelo Branco, to learn about good practices in the social and educational fields.

From this meeting he also informed that an exchange will start, in which Brava will receive the representative of the association of that Portuguese municipality, in the month of June, to verify the existing conditions and see what is necessary to do in the month of October to receive a caravan of 25 people from that association for the development of some social actions in Brava.

In this municipality, he also informed that he managed to “open doors” to see the possibility of placing students from Brave at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, which has several Cape Verdeans studying.

Still in Portugal, Francisco Tavares had the opportunity to establish contacts with the Municipality of Oeiras, indicating that talks were already advanced.

The mayor announced that a social agent will be assigned to the Municipality of Brava for a period of 3 to 6 months to carry out an in-depth social diagnosis of the island, and then draw up some projects to “attack” the identified problems.

With the municipality of Lisbon, he highlighted that he had a meeting with the councilor for the Environment and Sports area, leaving open the possibility of receiving some projects from the Municipality of Brava for future cooperation and partnerships.

And in Mafra, in a meeting with the mayor of this municipality, Francisco Tavares stressed that he showed a lot of openness to a future partnership and support the municipality of Brave within what are its possibilities.

In view of all the meetings, Francisco Tavares made a “positive” assessment of his mission, stressing that the island will soon begin to bear fruit.