Banipur, Howrah
A sewing machine can change a family's whole year.
Free tailoring and embroidery training for housewives and girls — a year-long course ending in a certificate, and often, an independent income.
Free tailoring and embroidery training for housewives and girls — a year-long course ending in a certificate, and often, an independent income.
Women and girls from Banipur and surrounding villages attend our centre to learn tailoring and embroidery from an expert teacher.
After completing the course, every participant receives a certificate — opening doors to tailoring jobs outside the home, or the confidence to start a small business of their own. Several graduates now run their own tailoring shops. Two sewing machines were donated to the centre by the Inner Wheel Club of Dhakuria and the Rotary Club of Kolkata.
Participation dropped during COVID, recovered strongly in 2019 and 2021, and has settled lower since — tracking closely with the wider funding pressure on the organisation.
Our women's hostel, Anand Bhawan in Salkia, once offered tailoring, embroidery and apparel printing alongside full residential education up to Higher Secondary level for economically disadvantaged girls. It closed during the pandemic when our Spanish donor withdrew support, and remains unused today. We are actively looking for a new partner to reopen it.
Each sewing machine, each year of teaching, each certificate is something a donor made possible.