All in a day’s work…. 2011

This year we started a new Center at ‘Bathri’. A village on the main highway to Chamba. The response from the students was fantastic and all of them came eagerly to paint, clean and set up the place.

One of the foremost objectives of our Tailoring school curriculum (which has been specially developed by us) is that the girls come there for learning…. and learning is what they would get…..

In spite of all the griping from the students.. who find their marks cut for spelling mistakes (which their Government school teachers did not do), at the end of their course they learn to read and write properly, draw neater diagrams and most of all KNOW stitching….

After the success of the first batch of the ‘Talai’ Center tailoring school, there was no lack of students for the second batch in 2011…

Naddi Taloring school batch 2011, on a visit to Dalhousie.. to see how things were managed in our centers and to interact with their counterparts in this part of the Himalayas..

This year on Gandhi Jayanti a fair was organised in Dalhousie in the Church grounds… the women from our centers put up the Jams (from the Jam Project) and Shopping bags (from the tailoring schools) for sale.

The shopping bags made in our tailoring school were appreciated a lot by all visitors at our stall in these fairs, the design and fabric was tastefully chosen as well as the stitching was of professional quality…

Participation in fairs was a very important step… It led the girls 1. To face the world outside their villages 2. Realize the appreciation of their work. 3. See hoe other people manage in the same circumstances as them.

The popular demand of the shopping bags in the ‘Gandhi Jayanti Fair was added fuel for the girls to work hard and make more of these beautiful bags for the Red Cross Fair held in November….. A good start…

In 2011 the Jam making centre has been operated totally by the women on their own…. and we are proud that they have come out with flying colours…

Learning financial account-keeping, inventory control and monetary management to manage their center has been the thrust this year….

Each department has worked this year to become self-dependent… whether it is Anita: accounts (the first woman)… or Rashmi: Library management (the second one)… Vandana and Rekha: the tailoring school teachers sitting on the farthest end)… They HAVE to learn to manage their own activities and make it grow and also imbibe this feeling in others, if this project has to spread from village to village…

The library has always been a good place for the children… They can draw/paint, read, learn with ‘Rashmi’ (their teacher and guide), make greeting cards, learn ‘Origami’ and play all sort of games…

It is wrong to say that the children are totally under the influence of TV… It all depends on how we guide them and spend time with them. The ‘Story’ hour is the most fascinating time for them… not only because they hear interesting stories… but because they are read to them as any story-teller should read…. The lions roar, the angry man shouts and the expressions of the characters is portrayed in their imaginations. Unfortunately… more and more we find that there is very less quality time spent upon reading… and this is what we do…

A library does not mean only books…!! Whether young or old… all the children are very enthusiastic when it comes to creative crafts. They just need a little help… Every year during Rakhi they all come to make the Rakhi’s themselves.. even though they can easily afford to buy from the market….. This is MORE FUN….

The excitement in the end was the comparing of each other’s handiwork…. and wanting to make more…. we had to put a stop… since we were running out of raw material… they always look forward to it the next year…