Hyderabad: There’s an old adage that says ‘give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day but teach him how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life’ and that is exactly what students affiliated to the Methodist College of Engineering and Technology chapter of Street Cause did earlier this month.
The team had decided to give a sustainable way of livelihood to 10 underprivileged women in VT Nagar Mall village in Chintapally mandal.
As to why they chose this way, M Uday Kumar, the head of the team, said, “We wanted to act on one of the goals of our NGO, which is sustainable employment and we did a number of surveys in the localities we knew. In this particular place, we found ten women who were struggling to make their ends meet. In fact, some of them are widows without any livelihood. That is when we decided to take up an initiative to give them a way of earning their own daily bread and sustaining their families,” he said.
After raising Rs 39,000 last month, the team bought four sewing machines and rented a place in the village and set up a tailoring centre for these women.
“We bought four sewing machines and these 10 women will work on those machines in shifts. We wanted to make sure they had a place to do this, so we got a place and paid for its advance and a month’s rent. We are sure they can sustain themselves with this and be self-reliant,” shared Uday.
Apart from setting up the tailoring centre, the team also ensured that the women gain necessary skills by ensuring their training. “Three of the women know basic tailoring and apart from them, our team mate, Mounika’s mother is training all of these women for free. Once they are trained, they can be completely independent,” Uday added.
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