Making an Impact: Artisan Education Initiative in India
This is a guest blog post by The Love Is Project
The Love Is Project empowers female artisans in developing countries across the world by selling on their intricate work, supporting them with fair pay, food, healthcare and education. Today we want to highlight the importance of educating girls and women and how it benefits them and their greater communities.
Almost a year ago, we wrote in our Love In Juala, India blog post that in addition to donating essential supplies to our artisans, we were in talks with village leaders to provide the women with a tutor to teach them reading, writing, and financial literacy. Now that the lockdown in India has been lifted, we are happy to announce that the program has started and there are currently 33 female students in the class.
Stationary and period products were distributed to help the women and girls continue their education and stay in school. Topics of conversation included how to keep dengue fever from spreading in the community and encouraging women to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The women also discussed how to maintain good hygiene during menstruation, the regressive divorce system in the region, and how Muslims and Hindus were able to coexist peacefully in the village.
These women aren’t letting anything stand in their way of providing a better life for themselves. More than half of them don’t have electricity, and the majority of them don’t have access to clean drinking water. A few of the women have achieved a 5th grade education, but most of them have never been enrolled in school. The women are proving that there is no better time than the present to learn financial literacy. We are so proud of our artisans and excited to see what they achieve.
Our artisans have created an eye-catching bracelet with colours reminiscent of the prized spice saffron. When you purchase a bracelet from the India Collection, you are supporting the education and livelihood of our female artisan partners.
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