LOCATION: Chandigarh, India
GOAL: Equip women to become self-sustained
BUDGET: $20,760.00
STILL NEEDED: $6,574
Update: The first class (20 students) recently graduated! We are now actively fundraising for the second class. Updates will be posted at the bottom of this page and on Facebook, so be sure to check back often.
Equip women to become self-sustained and empower them to escape poverty and abuse.
Many women in India find that their rights and opportunities are treated as less important than other citizens. 1 out of 4 women suffer from domestic violence and widows are abandoned and left with no means to provide for their children. This bias needs to be changed.
Impact Nations Australia believes that education is one of the keys to transformation. These women can be empowered to provide for their children when they gain the ability to generate their own income.
Impact Nations Australia along with Impact Nations International is working with New Life City Foundation in India to restore hope to women living in poverty. The New Life Empowerment Centre in Chandigarh India has been set up to provide skills training and micro-loans to empower women to move beyond a life of poverty, violence and sexual exploitation.
Upon graduation women will be provided with employment opportunities in the textile industry or offered a micro-loan to assist them to start their own small business as a seamstress. Impact Nations has run similar programs in India with a success rate of over 80% of participants becoming self-sustained.
20 women will be trained as seamstresses in each 6 month semester.
The current funding target of $120,000 covers the second semester of classes where students will learn to produce high-end suits and sarees to be sold in the market. It is expected that the profits generated from these sales will enable some graduates to be hired to continue producing garments and that after three semesters the project with be fully self-sustained.
In my travels to India with Impact Nations I have seen the positive outcomes that this type of project can make on the lives and future of women and their children.
We can all make a difference through giving to projects like these.Sue Noble
Updates
Sewing School Graduates
November 8, 2018
The first class has graduated! Twenty students have received their certificate and are ready to enter the marketplace. Some of the top students will stay at the sewing center and continue to improve their skills. At the end of this year, we hope to secure several contracts with major textile firms. This will provide employment for some of the graduates, while also helping to offset the costs of training the next batch of students.
April 23, 2018
The sewing school in India is up and running. There are 27 students from two different slums attending. In fact, the response has been so positive that an evening class was started in order to facilitate all of the extra students.
The class has teenage mothers, widows in their early twenties, pregnant teens, and even five young men who have said that they want to be able to provide for their families.
Pray that the gospel will penetrate the students’ hearts as they learn of a Heavenly Father who loves them. At this point the student body is 95% Hindu, but this practical demonstration of the gospel is about to radically change their lives.
