I spent several days with Women's Interlink Foundation, a long time partner of The Village Experience, to see how this non-profit is using vocational skills training programs to rehabiliate and reintegrate vulnerable women back into the community. Many of the young girls and women living in the rescue center were rescued from human-trafficking and brothels, domestic violence, homelessness, and more. The rescue center is now their only home. The wonderful women who lead Women's Interlink Foundation...people like Aloka and Ashoka....work tirelessly everyday to feed, clothe, shelter, and train these women.
Programs such as block-printing, screen-printing, tailoring, cookery, spice grinding, and paper making are being offered to women to teach them a solid skill that will help them to eventually transition out of the rescue center and reintegrate back into society. The Village Experience, through its non-profit arm, The Village Cooperative, has played an integral role in funding and supporting these vocational skills training programs. As a group, we are working towards fulfilling the wishlist that Women's Interlink Foundation has currently sent us.
For my part, I am trying to raise $3,700 in order to fund the following for the women:
A brand new gas oven for the cooking unit
Several sets of new utensils for the cooking unit
A button-holing machine for the tailoring unit (these are quite expensive)
Containers to store prepared dyes for the screen-printing unit
A drill machine to mix dyes for the block-printing unit
Color mixing utensils for both screen-printing and block-printing units
I am hoping you will join me in this effort so that we can provide much needed supplies to this sustainable program in Kolkata, India. I will match all donations made over $100 up to a total of $1500 because I have met these young ladies and seen their talent firsthand. I believe that they deserve a second chance.
Thank you in advance for your support of this project. Please note that it is not permitted to show direct images of the girl's faces so I have improvised by using creative images and photos of the wonderful administrators to convey the heart of this project.
Kathleen
