Thank you everyone for your lovely and wonderful comments on my last post! Javita and I are very excited about the Weaving Destination social enterprise. Today, I hope you will join me in welcoming a very special guest post from Javita!
Thanks Debi for such a wonderful and apt introduction of our
association, social enterprise and me. You are certainly a superwoman. My
heartfelt thanks to all the readers for their wonderful thoughts, wishes and
suggestions. Very encouraging and helpful indeed!
When Debi asked me to introduce myself on her blog, I was excited to
tell about myself and meet the wonderful community associated with her through
her blog. But, my first thought was what should I write about myself?..where
should I begin from?..and what is really my inspiration? I guess two words
describe me and my inspiration to do this work - ‘Creating Opportunities!’
Women who work in the sewing unit at Weaving Destination
Being
a female in a patriarchal world of India, my personal journey has been about
creating opportunities for myself to grow, to realize my full potential, to
travel, to get educated, to find a meaningful employment and career. Something
that I had that enabled me create opportunities and find my path of
possibilities and opportunities was a comfortable life style in the Capital of
India, Delhi and blessings from the Divine. However, many women in India
struggle to find their feet in a patriarchal and a gender discriminatory social
system coupled with other vulnerability causing situations such as poverty,
violence and abuse, and other adverse environmental conditions such as
conflicts, natural calamities and lack of appropriate support systems.
A glimpse inside the Weaving Destination centre Anthaigwlao Village, BTC, Assam
My personal journey of creating opportunities for myself and
standing up for my rights transgressed to public and political spheres with my
first job after my Graduation in Psychology Honours and Masters in Social Work.
I worked for eight years with a Violence Intervention Centre called Sakshi in
New Delhi and worked extensively in protecting and promoting the rights of
women and children and providing counselling support to women and child
survivors of different forms of abuse (physical, domestic and sexual abuse).
Further, I went on to work as a consultant with the United Nations (UN)
agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children's Fund and UN Women and other national and international organizations
such as the Airport Authority of India, American Centre for International
Labour Solidarity and the South Asia Gender Equity Programme on issues of human
trafficking, sexual harassment at the work place, child protection and
participation and child and adolescent development. I had the privilege of
traveling extensively for education and work, within India and internationally,
which expanded my world view, horizon and networks.
Sorry for the blurry picture...this is me (Javita) with two of the women weavers
In 2004, my husband and I decided to set up NEDAN Foundation - a
charity organization (commonly known as non-government organization/ NGO in
India) in Kokrajhar, Assam, North East India - an area marked by poverty,
ongoing conflict and naturally calamities. Being the birth place of my husband
Digambar Narzary, we recognized the vulnerability of the indigenous women, youth
and children to human trafficking, exploitation and primarily lack of
opportunities and possibilities for a viable livelihood and employment. This
kept them entrenched in the cycle of poverty and exploitation. Further the
environmental and geographic conditions of North East India bordering Bhutan,
Myanmar, Tibet, Bangladesh and Nepal created conditions of human trafficking
with open, porous borders and lack of sufficient vigilance. This
is how the roots of the Social Enterprise began - to create income generation
and livelihood opportunities for indigenous women from the area including
survivors of human trafficking and returnee migrants - for their economic and
social empowerment. From a small
income generation project through involving home-based skilled women weavers
from the Bodo community of Kokrajhar District in Assam at the inception of
NEDAN Foundation in 2004, a Social Enterprise called Weaving Destination took
shape.
Women weavers with their children -
Celebration at the Weaving Destination Centre
Today Weaving Destination includes three weaving centers in remote
villages of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Kokrajhar, Assam; a sewing
unit; and a group of females trained in yarn extraction. Besides the 65 women
engaged in the three weaving centers, many more have been trained and are
employed in the sewing unit and yarn extraction process. One of the young women
trained at the sewing unit runs her own sewing training centre with support
from NEDAN Foundation. Engaging and empowering women - economically and
socially - feeds back to empowering families and communities they belong to.
The Weaving Destination is a social enterprise primarily for creating
employment and livelihood opportunity for ethnic, indigenous local women. NEDAN
Foundation - the charity organization, on the other hand, with a few
international grants and revenue generated from the Weaving Destination works
towards other significant issues in the area such as child protection,
education, health, peace building and overall community development aspects in
the villages the women come from and where the weaving centers have been
established.
Extracting the yarn prior to weaving
Together with Debi, I envision a world full of opportunities and
possibilities for the women sitting and weaving in small, remote villages of
the BTC and many other women like them who would not be able to fulfill their
dreams and achieve their goals of self sufficiency and a contented life for
themselves and their families without support from other women (and men) who
have ‘made it‘ for themselves. In doing so, we also hope to create
opportunities for all of us here connected to each other globally, to feel the
hopes, aspirations and joys of women weavers through their beautiful organic,
handwoven (more on this in subsequent posts) colourful fabrics and be blessed
in the process!!
Yarn being laid out for weaving
Meeting Debi and David in Edinburgh has been one of the most
beautiful experiences of being in here over past one year. Thanks for their
beautiful friendship and such a meaningful partnership.
