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Volume 25 No. 1 | Autumn 2015
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Indian sewing project, empowering women
to live life to the full
The women of the central Indian village of Khurda, have
mostly not had the luxury of an education, and their
employment prospects are slim, but thanks to a new SVD
project, they are being taught to sew, and this skill is
helping empower them to earn a living.
The project is a work of the Catholic Ashram Khurda,
a part of the Divine Word Missionaries’ Central Indian
Province.
Fr Nicholas Martis SVD, Rector, says the sewing project
is the latest in a series of initiatives which aim to help
provide education, skills and employment opportunities
for the local people.
“Catholic Ashram Khurda is about 60km from Indore
City,” he says. “In Khurda we have a Novitiate house, a
school named after Mahatma Ghandi, and a parish, Holy
Rosary Church.
“The Church was built almost 110 years ago and
basically the whole village is Catholic. However, Khurda is
surrounded by another 20 villages, who are not Catholics
and we have a wonderful rapport with these villages,
mainly due to our school.”
Fr Nicholas says the people of Khurda depend on the
crops they produce for their livelihood.
“For many years, the people could have only one crop,”
he says. “But gradually, after a lake was built close by,
people are producing a second crop. This has made
people happy, as they can have their fill.
“The vast majority of them don’t have employment, and
they are looking for work.”
With the help of many benefactors, including the SVD
AUS Province, the Divine Word Missionaries of Khurda
built a school, to help the local people gain an education,
which will give them a better chance of gaining
employment.
Other initiatives aimed at providing skills for employment
have also been undertaken.
“The sewing project is the latest one,” says Fr Nicholas.
“This is for women who don’t have work. They come over
here and a teacher shows them how to stitch clothes.
“The women learn this stitching gradually and they are
being empowered, and in the meantime, they earn some
money for their livelihood.
“These women are not educated, and if some of them
have been to school, then it is only a primary education.”