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EMPOWERING WOMEN
Soutien aux femmes
On peut soutenir la condition de la femme en lui offrant un travail, en lui enseignant des compétences de vie et en la soutenant elle-même ainsi que sa famille. C'est par ces trois moyens que nous souhaitons agir et notre engagement va en faveur de l'Institut de couture pour femmes, situé à Parassala, dans le Kerala.
One way to empower a woman, is by teaching her life skills to support herself and her family.
The Tailoring Institute for Women located in Parassala, Kerala, was Karangal's first project.
It all started when two women one Indian (Lily) and one Swiss (Anne-Françoise) met at a painting class in Rolle and became good friends. Their common interest to uplift women enduring socio-economic difficulties in the rural areas of South India gave birth to R+D South India Association.
The three founding members, Anne-Françoise Steimer, Lily Amirtham and Pierre Reymond founded the association in 1992 at Mont-sur-Rolle and began their work to develop a structure to provide refuge, training and space to women for their empowerment.
Ce centre de couture était l'un des premiers projets de l'association Karangal. Situé dans le Kerala, il offre un environnement sécure aux femmes issues de milieux défavorisés et de conditions difficiles (abus, veuvage, délaissement etc.). Elles y apprennent la couture, la broderie et la confection de vêtements. Ces compétences acquièrent ensuite une valeur monétaire qui les aide, elles et leur famille, à maintenir un niveau de vie décent.
Au fil des ans, le centre de couture s'est agrandi. Grâce à son action, des centaines de femmes ont vu leur vie s'améliorer. Le centre est mené par une équipe de quatre personnes. De beaux ouvrages textiles en ressortent, destinés à des familles locales et à des petits magasins.
The Tailoring Centre for Women was Karangal's first program, located in Parassala, Kerala. It has provided a safe environment to women from homes of alcohol abuse, abandoned women, widows and many others from difficult situations to come and be trained in the area of sewing, embroidery and tailoring. These skills could then be monitized by them and inturn help them and their families sustain a livelihood. Over the years, with Karangal's support through various activities in Switzerland and India, the centre has grown to a great extent.
It is self supportive with 4 staff members and few workers that work at the onsite facility and many others who collect material from the facility to work from home. They produce beautiful garments and textile products as per the tailoring needs of the local families and small readymade garment stores.
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