 The biggest challenge for Capalongas was the creation of its workshop in the underprivileged suburb of Manila. The objective was to provide a means of livelihood to dressmakers of one community in Dasmarinas, Cavite that will enable them to live in dignity. After weeks of arduous searching: of a place to rent, a second hand sewing machines to buy and to somewhat beat also the bewildering logistics of Filipino administrations, the workshop could start to produce the first parts in June 2006.
 Managed in associative form, the workshop is entirely equipped for the production of Capalongas clothing: from cutting to packing, including embroideries, serigraphy and ironing, all is made in our shop! It thus provides work to six dressmakers and a master cutter and we hope to add much more people in the future. In addition to being a convivial place of work where the dressmakers can exert their skills and talent in good ambiance, it is also a place of learning where young apprentices can come to be formed near their elder. Lastly, the Capalongas workshop is one of a kind, since it functions on a participative mode: all the members take part in the decision-makings that is on the level of remunerations, the organization of the workshop or more simply of decoration!
 We above all wanted to create a convivial place where the dressmakers will have pleasure to work. A workshop of craftsmen, where one can work in good mood, to help, take part in the decisions, to learn when one does not know, to take time to make products of quality which one can be proud of… all that with a salary allowing them to live with dignity. In short, a kind of anti-sweatshop! 
Hilda, Founder of Capalongas.
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Fair Trade 
