.. local capacities means passing on the women’s knowledge from village to village.
Thus, our experts from Chyangsar have now also trained the women in Ghunsa and Meranding. Washable sanitary napkins are now being sewn everywhere in the sewing workshops and can be sold through the cooperative. Soon, the cooperative will have its own brand.
We are happy about the great commitment of all and thank our sponsors for their support.
.. are the washable sanitary towels. The feedback from the women is discussed and the new models are adapted accordingly. The general process of how the individual sewing workshops work together is also explained and discussed by our social worker Racedi.
For example, there is now a central warehouse for the material, which is collected by the women from the villages, and when the sanitary napkins are delivered, they receive the agreed wage per sanitary napkin directly from the cooperative. The sale will then also take place centrally through the cooperative. In this way, marketing can be done jointly and larger quantities can be delivered.
We are proud of the skills that the women have built up in such a short time and thank our sponsors for their support.
.. was the quick effort of all sewing forces to distribute the first masks not only to the students but to all inhabitants in the villages of Chyangsar, Ghunsa, Meranding and Kunikhop.
The sewing is going on diligently but already some things will be distributed before Christmas.
We thank before all Chay-ya Austria and the province of Vorarlberg for making this project possible.
The support began with a selection of girls who did not regularly attend school due to their family situation. At the request of the women and girls, however, it was then decided to extend the program to all children. In particular, the individual needs of the girls are addressed, but the boys are also integrated regarding material (except school uniforms) and group activities.
For the women in Chyangsar, we have supported two ways to generate income. On the one hand, income from vegetable cultivation, and on the other, from a sewing workshop established in 2020.
Plants and vegetables:
Sewing workshop:
In Chyangsar, organic vegetable cultivation has been supported by RfL since 2016. In the beginning, there were still many reservations here; instead of training, many would probably have preferred to receive fertilizer. In the meantime, however, acceptance is high and the results are visible.
Model farm:
Certification program:
Chyangsar is a village in Solududhkunda at an altitude of 2380m with 188 mostly Hindu families. Here Roots for Life started to work with the women after the earthquake in 2015.
A structure in the way of a (self-)organization hardly existed before, just as little as a place where more than 10 people could gather under one roof and exchange ideas. Agriculture was practiced exclusively for subsistence with only a few vegetables.
In the meantime, the center of the Sagarmatha Milijuli Sana Kishan Cooperative is located here, which spans several neighboring villages. The model farm built here serves as an example for the other villages.
The women from Chyangsar have gradually created the stable and legally anchored Sagarmatha Milijuli Sana Kishan Cooperative from an originally small informal group of women (five women in 2015). In addition to the local organization, an overseeing board was also formed jointly with Ghunsa, Meranding and Kunikhop.
In the local subgroup, two women were hired to run the model farm. All others work on a voluntary basis.
.. the last mask workshop went into operation in Kunikhop. The good cohesion in the cooperative made it possible to extend the activities to this village as well. The women are trained by women from Chyangsar and Ghunsa. What was unimaginable a few years ago now works like clockwork. Knowledge transfer and information exchange among the women, use of synergies across village and project boundaries.
We are very proud of the learning process of the women, who for a long time were used to fighting only for themselves.
Many thanks to the state of Vorarlberg and to Chay-ya Austria for their support.
.. are now also sewn in Meranding. Also here the women from Chyangsar have done the training and generated income with their knowledge. Now the sewing workshops in Chyangsar, Ghunsa and also Meranding are active to sew masks for their inhabitants and the children in the schools.
In total, about 5,000 masks will be sewn and distributed.
We thank Chay-ya Austria and the government of Vorarlberg for making this project possible.
