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The mission of Associação Cais is to build and restore
the autonomy of the poor and socially excluded,
namely the homeless.
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The CA
The CAH
The CAHO
The CAHO P
The CAHO Pr
The CAHO Pro
The CAHO Prog
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The CAHO Progra
The CAHO Program
The CAHO Programm
The CAHO Programme
is an innovative programme
whose aim is to improve
employability.
It's where Cais Recicla comes in.
It was created with the support of Unicer.
It was a joint idea.
It aims to empower its members
socially and professionally
by reusing waste material
from industrial assembly lines.
We work with designers and we make new ecodesign products.
Beneficiaries of the Pilot-Project
This is an employability project.
We have two people working in the Workshop.
They have a 12-month contract
and we provide them with a fixed monthly salary.
This enables them to improve their well-being and quality of life.
Integration and production activities
When people come to the Workshop
they are socially vulnerable.
We can provide emotional and psychological support.
We work together every day.
This job provides them with an income
that enables them to have more opportunities.
We have attracted more designers and more companies
who provide us with more waste material
and design new products.
Then, the designer builds a prototype
that we consider fit to introduce onto the market.
We carry out the first tests
and the artisans begin manual production.
Design Studio Bicho de Sete Cabeças
I was invited by Unicer
as a creative designer
to get to know their material and decide what to make out of it.
We came up with pieces such as the canned sardine.
Inspired by the façade of Portuguese houses,
we created notebook covers and the scale notebook series.
We designed pencils covered with old beer labels.
These objects tell many stories:
about their origin, their company,
how they were changed, what they are made of
and who produced them.
It is a nice comeback by means of pieces like these.
Product Supply
For the company,
it was truly inspiring to help people
to revive their spirit with material
which was no longer useful to us.
In our first visit to their workshop,
where they stored their material
we could pick out what we needed,
and because we worked with Coats & Clark,
we are partners in other projects
and we designed several pieces for them,
we thought they would be a valuable partner for Cais.
Our products are for sale at Casa da Música.
They were made
from waste material for merchandising.
We have several shops in Oporto, Coimbra and Lisbon.
We have a unique sales strategy,
namely via companies,
exhibitions under the protection of companies
or merchandising for these companies.
We can collaborate with a company
because it needs to acquire a product for merchandising
or we can make them a proposal based on their waste material.
By expanding the Workshop, we aim to extend this opportunity
to other members and other people working at Cais,
and bring about greater social impact.
We want to grow
and we want it to be sustainable in the medium-term.
Now we just have two workers,
but we want to expand it to other members of Cais.
Direct impact on the beneficiaries
I met the people working at Cais studio.
I see it as an incredibly stimulating project
and as an opportunity
for the two people working at Cais studio
to recreate and change their lives and be able to dream once more.
Even financially, it helped me a lot.
Now I can pay my bills.
And when I come here
I leave my problems outside.
I put love and affection in what I do.
That's what it is.