A stitch in time

Pictures I clicked on my recent trip (1, 2 May) of the Self-Help Group in Sawra, Pench Tiger Reserve. Our Employment Cell organized a cutting and sewing course here last month. It was attended by 37 villagers. The Forest Department has provided 42 sewing machines to this village so that was an incentive to learn.



It was a 10-day course conducted by the NGO Pratham's skill centre. After it was over, eleven of the participants formed a permanent sewing group and are helping each other - and improving daily. Earlier only one girl, Vaishali Kumre, knew some basic sewing. Now all the group members are able to stitch clothes (sari blouses, shirts). They will be able to take orders soon and will probably make school uniforms for the village kids.



How can city-dwellers help this employment-generation initiative?

Simple: order a re-usable shopping bag. Here the group is cutting fabric to make one of the designs I've asked for. There will be two designs - but the prototypes need some minor changes so I'm not posting the pictures yet.

From SF we've already placed an order for 50 bags, to be completed in a month. Kirti and I plan to buy ten each and gift them to our friends, and our President Kishor Rithe also wants ten. Our Executive Director Giri Venkatesan has ordered 20. The bags will be priced at Rs 100 each (one of the designs may be priced at Rs 120). The money will go directly to the group and will not go through SF at all. The group members are going to open a joint bank account soon.



Four people who saw these pictures in our Facebook group have also enquired about the bags. An order has already come in for 50 to be made in canvas! Re-usable bags will always be in demand, and it will be wonderful if villagers of the region buy them too, because disposable plastic bags are becoming a huge problem there - as they are everywhere.





So here's the group: Vaishali Kumre, Ram Tilak Kodape, Rahul Kumre, Kaushal Kodape, Arti Awasthi, Ambika Warthi, Evatkala Uike, Baby Wadive, Reena Kumre, Kavita Maskole. The eleventh member Sita Uike is missing from this picture but is an active participant. On the right: SF's Community Officer Dilip Lanjewar.



Above: Displaying shirts made by the group

I want to publicly thank my friend Seema Kalla-Churamani for all her help with this initiative. Seema visited Pench with me last month and suggested a number of items the Self-Help Group could make. She guided Vaishali on making a couple of bag prototypes but that was before the sewing course and Vaishali had a problem cutting the more complex pattern. I don't know much about tailoring, but on this trip it was easy to see the huge progress she's made after the course.

If you are interested in ordering bags, please keep visiting this blog as I will post pictures of the products once they are ready. You can email me on rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail DOT com