KOTHARI MAHILA SAHAYATA KENDRA

Main activities organized here are:

Literacy, Stitching, Fashion Designing, Mehandi (Tattoo Art), Beautician Course, Dance & Music Classes, Gift Packing, Cooking Classes, Computer Classes, Paper Mache, and other Educational Courses. The older girls at the centre also benefit from these courses held for the women.

Education:

Many women never had the opportunity to go to school in their childhood, and are therefor illiterate. Here at Bkk Trust, these very women are encouraged to step out of the boundries society once drew for them, and get the most basic education of learning how to read and write. They are not shy to sit with the children and learn. Their self confidence gets a tremendous boost, and they are then able to stand up for themselves. It helps them recover from economic, social and personal circumstances. With this base, they are able to pick up yet more skills, and also protect their own interest.

Stitching & Fashion Designing :

The basic stitching course is taught over 6 months. Here, women learn the designing and stitching of 25 garments, which starts with basic stitching, turpai, button fixing, eye-hook fixing, running of the sewing machine etc.

Subsequently, interested women then graduate to the Fashion course, which trains them to be skilled in cutting and stitching of many other types of garments. This also includes a lot of base knowledge about embroidery, tie & dye, etc. Armed with these skills, the women are then able to take dress making orders from their homes, open their own boutiques, work at tailoring units and export houses, and assist their husbands financially in providing for their family.They are also able to save money by stitching their own clothes!

Mehendi

Mehendi application is another skill which is very useful, as the women and girls then can get called to apply mehendi for families during weddings and other occasions

Beautician’s course

This is conducted twice a year, where hands-on skills are taught to the ladies. They subsequently can work at beauty parlours, or open their own parlours.

Gift Packing

Fancy gift packing has become a popular trend these days, and the women are then able to work with event management companies, who provide these services for weddings etc.

Dholak (drum) and Dance

These 2 are usually conducted during the summer vacations, the centre is packed to capacity in those days!

Papier Mache

After learning the art of papier mache, the women can make interesting household and decorative articles, such as flower vases, photo frames, trays etc. They can then sell them, especially in exhibitions

Cooking

This course is planned whenever there is a large enough group who is interested. The teacher helps the women enhance their present skills by teaching them varieties such as South Indian dishes, cakes, cookies, chocolate, desserts etc. This assists them in taking up catering orders.