About Us Satisfied Customers The Girls who Sew Indian Vignettes

The Girls Who Sew

Click here for seamstress Radha's Story
as she describes her life in the slums of Bangalore, India
and how East-West Education helped her achieve a better life.


		Laxmi and Bernadette pause for a photograph, in the midst of cutting and hand sewing dolls' and children's clothes in their workshop in Bangalore, India.
		Bhagya, surrounded by colourful clothes and an African doll, works on her trusty treadle sewing machine.

Radha's Story

I am 18 years old and live with my mother, older sister and brother in a small two-roomed house in a Bangalore slum. My father died 5 years ago because he drank too much. We had to leave school then. My mother works as a maid in a house nearby.

**This is the street in front of our house.**
Women are waiting to fill their pots with water from the standpipe, which serves 40 families. Water only comes twice a day for two hours. I have to fill 3 pots for the day’s use before I leave for work.

**Many children do not go to school since their parents cannot afford the fees.**

Then Oasis, a charity that works in our area, offered my sister the chance to learn tailoring. Now she earns twice my mother’s salary. Later I did the course too and I earn the same amount sewing dolls clothes for East-West Education. I pay my younger brother’s school fees.

During our 10-month tailoring course we received free lunch and a travel stipend. Besides learning how to cut out patterns and sew on a treadle machine – the electricity is unreliable – we also had classes in English, healthcare and life skills.

After a short apprenticeship, we started making the dolls clothes. It is not easy to sew the tiny sleeves and I often had to redo them! Besides the sewing, we also make the accessories and do the packaging.

I enjoy working with 8 other girls and the new set of trainees. Most of the girls are from our slum and dropped out of school like me.

**Here the photographer caught us preparing for our Christmas Party!**

We have periodic visits from a doctor and dentist and continue with our English classes.

All of us are grateful to East-West Education for teaching us a worthwhile skill. We now earn a good salary in a comfortable situation with the promise of help getting a job later when the trainees move into our place.