My Story:

According to the BBC, an incident of domestic violence is reported about once every five minutes in India. When I traveled to my ancestral village, I came across an orphanage known as Kaakum Karangal, which not only supports orphan children, but also exploited and uneducated women. While I was there, I learned that many of these uneducated women face the threat of domestic violence. 90% of the women were abused by their drunken husbands, often intoxicated due to concerns of poverty. These women are in need of support, both financially and emotionally. Thus, they must find jobs in order to support their family and foster independence.

Empowerment:

Sparking Lives is supporting these exploited women by providing this organization with sewing machines. These sewing machines are instrumental in generating jobs for these uneducated women. With these sewing machines, the women are trained in the profession of custom tailoring, a high demand job in India.

Female Trainee

Impact:

Sparking Lives has provided five sewing machines towards this effort. Thus, twenty-seven women are able to train in tailoring. At this organization, there are two sets of classes which allows for each woman to effectively learn the art. These classes are led by a trained group of women who have taken initiative in helping their fellow community members. This experience then allows the women to start tailoring businesses of their own, encouraging self-sufficiency.

Pictured from left to right: Female trainee, Varshini Odayar, Head trainee