The Women's journey to Empowerment

As we drove head first into this project, we realised that the women were the back-support for the weavers, but lacked important skills and thus the opportunity to earn their own living. We understood the importance of building confidence amongst the women in the villages. Through this project we have been devising ways to do just that.

We explored various product designs and came upon the old but lost tradition of the "Varanasi Buttons" - little pieces of pure beauty much treasured by the royalty at its time, but sadly now forgotten. The women have been trained in creating this beautiful pieces again and this has brought them back into the forefront. Under this initiative, 96 women have received employment and many more have received training. These buttons are now finding new markets again and the women have gained new found confidence thanks to their income.

The initiative for women is also being extended to weaving. Women who are extremely keen can now take training sessions along with the men to learn weaving and even the finer skills such as weaving Jamdani.The women have been organised into Self Help Groups and they meet monthly. Their excitement and their smiles lets us know that we are together on this journey to empowerment.