As a part of Sinai Ministries we run a tailoring school, directed mostly at the widows in the surrounding areas. The school was founded in 1999 and has been running successfully for 7 years now. In India it is a very difficult life for widows, especially if they have children to support, because they are generally looked down on in society.
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This means that they receive no help from the government or, very often, friends and family. The main aim of the school is to give the women an education for free which they can then use to get a job and begin to support themselves and their families. We run two six-month courses every year and at the end of every course the women receive a certificate
On each course we generally accept 20 women, so there are 40 women trained every year. We have a good relationship with a large local tailoring company which has agreed to employ any woman with a certificate of education from our organization. This means the women are able to enter employment straight away.
We are aware that while the women are studying at our school, they are still struggling to survive; we therefore pay a ‘stayfund’ to each woman of 500 Rupees a month (7 pounds) which contributes to caring for them and their family. We also give them many opportunities to sell the work they produce during their time with us.
At the school we currently own 15 sewing machines and we hire 2 trained teachers and one supervisor to hale the ladies. Monthly, the school costs 25,000-35,000 Rupees to run. This translates as roughly 300-400 pounds and 500-600 dollars. |
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