On  04th January 2012,  85 certificates were distributed by His Grace Archbishop William D’Souza of Patna and Sr. Phyllis of the Presentation Sisters of Srinagar to poor young women and girls belonging to the economically weaker sections of our society in different pockets of Patna who completed their 10 month course in sewing.

Addressing the young women the Archbishop encouraged them to come up in life and said it is a matter of pride when women from the slums and among the homeless get skilled. He also encouraged them to share their talents with others.  Love that is shared with others keeps rolling.

Besides imparting skills Sr. Dorothy says we give them inputs on human development. They have come a long way and are able to speak out and demand their rights.

They also learn to live in harmony with one another and this will help them to build strong homes and take full responsibility for their families.

Sr. Dorothy Fernandes is a social activist trying to improve the welfare of the homeless through Jan Kalyan Gramin Vikas Samiti’s an initiative of Aashray Abhiyan that imparts training for sewing for the past 4 years to the urban young women and girls.

The areas where the training is being conducted are Chitkohra hutments, Kaushal Nagar slums, Behind Bihar Union Public Services hutments, TV Tower area and Gaighat where the homeless live in large numbers. The trainers lives are also inspirational as they too have struggled and are the bread winners of their families.

Most of them come from homes where their fathers or husbands are either daily wage earners or rickshaw pullers and have been living in inhuman conditions and have been denied many basic rights.

We educate them about their rights and the many government schemes for which they are entitled. Often not being aware of their rights and not knowing how to avail of these benefits these schemes remain beyond their reach.

To improve their economic status, so we give them training in sewing. We began in one slum and got them to be responsible for the machines. Slowly word went around and today we have 5 centers in different slums.

We met with a lot of opposition from those who did not want that poor to get skilled.

Each year about 80 young girls and women complete their training. While they are in the training period, we begin by asking them to make a commitment to attend classes daily and we encourage them to begin by saving some amount each day.

Some of them have religiously honored what we have said and have been able to buy a machine while getting trained. As a result those who have managed to buy machines have begun taking orders and have gained confidence.

Source: CRI – Dorothy Fernandes pbvm, Patna

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