Tailoring training

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life.”

At HHI we are committed to empower people who have little or nothing to support themselves, their families and their wider communities.  One way that we do this is by training women to sew high quality bespoke clothing, for which there is a great demand in Kerala.  Up to 20 women come at a time for a six month course which teaches them all that they need to know.  This has been very successful – about three quarters of those who take part go on to use their skills, either working for an employer or using their skills at home in a cottage industry.  It is also very cost effective – the trainer’s salary is just £80 a month.

tailoring training

For women who want to work from home, and who cannot afford a sewing machine on their own, we provide half the £100 cost of a treadle sewing machine.  This sort of machine is preferred as it doesn’t need electricity, which is often unreliable.  They will often be able to borrow the rest of the cost at a nominal interest rate from one of our credit unions, which we described in an earlier update.  Again, this is very cost-effective – the sewing machine pays for itself in just a few months.

One such person whom we helped recently is Beena.  Her husband is a coolie, someone who has no regular work, but has to find someone to work for each day – and there are far more coolies than work available.  She had been on the tailoring course, but had no money to buy a sewing machine.  Thanks to your help she was able to buy a machine and start earning money.  The family is no longer in poverty, and now she is able to pay for her three children to go to school, enabling the cycle of poverty to be broken.  She is very grateful to everyone in the far-off UK who has made this possible.