Arquivo de Identidade Angolano: Sewing Training for LBQ+ Women
Meet the Partners, Part 3
In Benguela, Angola, 70 women are learning to cut, sew, and sell. It’s sewing training for LBQ+ women, and it is one of the 13 projects in the LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund.
Sewing Training for LBQ+ Women in Benguela
The project is run by Arquivo de Identidade Angolano and is called “Malembe-Malembe.” It trains 70 rural and peri-urban women in cutting, sewing, and textile production. Outright International, our first intermediary, describes the participants as LGBTQ+ women.
The women also learn financial management and marketing. A skill gets them started. Knowing what to charge, how to keep accounts, and how to find customers is what lets a sewing machine become a business.
Why Sewing Training for LBQ+ Women Matters in Angola
Angola decriminalized same-sex relations in 2019 and made discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal. The same article notes that economic exclusion and stigma remain common.
Arquivo de Identidade Angolano described the situation in its 2018 report to the UN committee on women’s rights. It called employment a “very huge struggle” for lesbian and bisexual women. It said many give up studying because they aren’t accepted at school and that some can’t pay for school once family support ends. It also noted “very few data” on lesbian and bisexual women in Angola, a gap we describe in Where Is the Funding for LBQ+ Women in the Global South?.
Having a work of their own is one answer. A woman who can earn doesn’t have to wait for anyone’s permission. We explain why in How Economic Independence Protects LBQ+ Women From Violence.
Who Is Arquivo de Identidade Angolano?
Arquivo de Identidade Angolano (“Angolan Identity Archive”) is a women-led queer organization, founded in 2017. It is based in Luanda and has worked with the GALA Queer Archive on an oral history of queer activism in Angola. Its director is Líria de Castro. In 2018 it ran a shelter for LBT women. I
The project runs until May 2027. We’ll share what the 70 women make and sell.
Help Fund More Training for LBQ+ Women
The Fund supports LBQ+ women in the Global South and East (countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe). We give through vetted, trusted intermediaries. Outright is our first, and we’re working to add more so we can reach LBQ+ women’s groups that have never had access to funding.
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