Prepared for work & Empowered in community

Goals :

Women/girls educated and skilled and able to pursue employment.

Women able to participate in family and community decision making & advancements.

In 2004 our society work began with a sewing training program attended by 30 young women from Kathputli slum colony. The preceding years have seen in excess of 200 women completing tailoring courses, In 2015 fifteen young women who completed their tailoring course were gifted with new donated sewing machines.  In 2008 Helping Hands hired a pattern master to design and stitch school uniforms.  From there we started small sewing and bag-making factories for manufacturing all of our school uniforms and school bags. The factories today provide ongoing training and paid employment for women from the Kathputli Slum and tailors from nearby villages.

Many of the young women who attended the tailoring courses, along with others, joined Adult Literacy and Numeracy classes which Helping Hands commenced in the slum in 2007. To this day in excess of 100 of those community women are now able read, write and do their maths. Both the sewing and literacy programs are continuing to this day. During 2013 a training course in basic computing was conducted in the Kathputli Slum. 20 young women, as well as high school students attended. Most of women in attendance had studied in our Adult Literacy through the years. Some young women are employed, some are further studying, and several now are employed as a school teachers.

A four week community summer camp in Kathputli during the school holidays provided in excess of 150 women training in literacy, sewing, embroidery, plaque making, beautician, jewellery making and various arts and crafts. All who participated received a certificate for their particular training course, and a commitment from Helping Hands staff that another training camp is in planning.