Alstom Foundation’s outreach ‘Women in Action’ project in Lisbon

The Alstom Foundation, together with Alstom in Portugal and the Portuguese NGO Ajuda em Ação promoted the “Women in Action” project in the municipality of Loures, near Lisbon, Portugal. This initiative aims to promote self-employment activities for women facing the risk of social exclusion, by establishing a sewing training school and providing entrepreneurship and business training.

For its implementation, the Alstom Foundation will offer logistical assistance and fund the training staff, materials, sewing machines and other complementary activities, like mentoring, events or visits to other projects and companies. The training will cover interpersonal skills (creativity, critical thinking, communication skills, teamwork), professional skills (proficiency in sewing techniques, pattern design, creative reuse, raw materials, and circular economy), and business skills (business plan, marketing, digital communication, sales techniques, etc.).

“It is exciting to consolidate, in partnership with Ajuda em Ação, the first Alstom Foundation project in Portugal, which confirms Alstom’s commitment to Portugal also in its social aspect. We hope to have many more in the future.”

The aim is for the twenty women taking part in the programme to gain the ability to establish and maintain their own businesses, thereby making a positive and transformative influence not only on their own lives but also on their families and communities.

“Since its creation, the Alstom Foundation has carried out 297 projects all over the world. Alstom and its employees’ commitment have made possible, year after year, the contribution to the most disadvantages communities, wherever Alstom is present. It is exciting to consolidate, in partnership with Ajuda em Ação, the first Alstom Foundation project in Portugal, which confirms Alstom’s commitment to Portugal also in its social aspect. We hope to have many more in the future,” explained David Torres, Alstom in Portugal Managing Director.

“Unemployment or precarious employment brings people closer to poverty circle, exclusion and even food insecurity. Ajuda em Ação provides people the necessary skills to create their own business and thus have a means to sustain themselves and improve their surrounding and their own living situation. Thanks to the support of the Alstom Foundation, we will be able to carry out sewing and entrepreneurship workshops to help a group of women at risk of exclusion to build a better future for themselves and their families”, explained Mário Rui dos Santos, National Director & Programme Director of Fundação Ajuda em Ação Portugal.

Founded in 2007, the Alstom Foundation supports and finances projects proposed by Alstom employees and developed in partnership with local NGOs and non-profit organisations. The initiatives aim to improve the living conditions of communities near the group’s sites around the world. The Foundation’s projects focus on 4 axes: access to mobility, environmental protection, access to energy and water, and socio-economic development. In this latest edition, the Foundation Board received 240 proposals from 44 countries. Of these, the Foundation will fund 36 projects in 2023/2024, with a budget of €2.2 million.

Alstom has been present in Portugal for over 30 years and, currently, two out of three trains running in Portugal have been manufactured by Alstom or with Alstom technology, including high-speed, regional, metro and tram trains. In the digital sphere, more than 1,500 km of the Portuguese rail network and more than 500 on-board units are managed by Alstom ATP system, a signalling solution developed specifically for the Portuguese market. In terms of urban mobility, Alstom supplied the signalling system for Metro do Porto and manufactured the 102 first trains, currently operation in the network. Alstom in also providing the ATP installed on board to the 18 trains recently acquired by this operator.