Venky and Eileen making their first re purposed fabric bag

This project began in December 2010 with one student and a goal: to allow students to practice their learned vocational skills while turning discarded waste fabric scraps into a sellable product and returning the profits back to the students.

Now for one hour a day, 10 hearing and speech impaired students perfect their skills in tailoring, embroidery, teamwork and leadership while making small bags out of waste fabric.  And they enthusiastically take pride in their creations.

If you have purchased a re-purposed bag, type your bag number here to know more about who made your bag:

Early on BCT found that the twin evils that continue to plague the rural poor are ignorance and ill-health. The first was addressed by organizing programmes that emphasized education and training. To tackle the latter, BCT established the Grama Arogyalayam Trust in 1985 to deal with health education as well as treatment of illness. One of the earliest steps taken by BCT’s staff was the training of illiterate women to be health workers. These women were given basic training in health and hygiene using an innovative training method consisting of flashcards and practical demonstration.

Table 1: Distribution of children according to sex.

Table 2:

Demudu has been farming all his life. He does not consider himself educated, though he did learn to read and write a bit at a night school in the early days of BCT. He is an experienced farmer with many agricultural skills, yet he felt quite helpless and didn’t know what to do when a major drought hit the area, ruined his rice crop and threatened to destroy his livelihood. At this time BCT-KVK was making visits to farmers, assessing situations and making suggestions. Demudu had never heard of the organization before, but happily took their advice to grow finger millet and planted the seeds they gave him. That year, his was the only green crop in the entire area. He harvested 500 kilograms of the millet, which was of excellent quality. The whole village came to see his crop and many purchased seeds for themselves, and they to had good yields.

Demudu was grateful to the organization for showing him a way to overcome the drought period. He wanted to thank them and show them the excellent results, but realized he had forgotten the name of the organization. He spent days searching and asking around and finally found his way back to KVK to give his thanks. Since that time he has continued to follow KVK’s advice and is always eager to try new seeds and new methods. He has even been selected as the best farmer in the area and was presented with an award by KVK. He attributes his success in farming to his attitude, and his willingness to adapt and try new things. His son has visited the KVK farm and research center, and now attends KVK meetings regularly.

This year Demudu feels fortunate to once again have a good rice crop. He will earn 460 rupees for every 100 kilograms of rice. With this income he wants to clear the debts he has with banks and private moneylenders. He is concerned about the bad situation still faced by many of the farmers as they deal with the devastation caused the drought and hopes for another good harvest next year in order to fully recover.

When Chinababu’s father reached fifth grade the financial situation of his family forced him to discontinue his studies in order to join his family working in the fields. This experience made him determined to ensure that his own children would not face the same fate. Luckily, by the time Chinababu was of school age, BCT had introduced their night school program so he was able to help his father in the fields during the day and attend school in the evening. Following primary school, Chinababu was among the first batch of students to be enrolled in BCT’s Model High School . He just recently completed a degree in science and is now awaiting his entrance exam results to enter a Bachelors of Education program, with the goal of becoming a math teacher.

In the mean time he is teaching primary school (grades 1-5) at the BCT School near the Training Center for the Disabled. As we speak with him his students work quietly with various BCT-created learning materials such as Telugu alphabet cards. This is exactly what Chinababu likes about the BCT educational model: it involves active student participation and fun activities instead of purely lectures and rote memorization.

He also appreciates the personal attention he received at BCT schools and which he is now able to give his own students because of the small size of classes. In addition, he is grateful for the tailoring skills he learned while attending the Model High School.He still uses his skills to help his neighbor who is a tailor and earn extra income.

A national program to vaccinate every child in India against Polio was started about 9 years ago and has been very successful in dramatically reducing the number of cases of this disease. Unfortunately the program came to late for Chadoram, who contracted Polio and was left crippled by it. He now uses a big long stick for support as he walks, and with it he actually seems to be able to get around faster than anyone else. He never let his disability keep him from getting an education, and completed all the way to the intermediate level in government schools.

Immediately following the intermediate level he joined the Training Center for Disabled Children, which he had learned about through the local BCT school. At the center he was trained in tailoring, paper bag and plate making, as well as agriculture. Because he had already completed an academic education, he was also able to help the other students with their academic work. Chadoram truly enjoyed his time at the Center because of it’s peaceful and happy atmosphere. He also says that the teaching of skills there is very thorough and complete, and he was able to gain great confidence both in his tailoring and in his speaking and social interaction skills.

Upon completion of the program BCT sold him a sewing machine with a loan to be paid back over 20 months. The first month of business was slow, but Chadoram didn’t get discouraged. Soon the orders started flowing in, and he now makes an average of 70 rupees per day.

During the recent festival period in January, he made 3,500 rupees in 20 days. The community has been very supportive and encourages him by sending orders his way. He returns to the BCT Center regularly in order to refresh his skills and stitch items as a way of paying back his loan. He has also begun saving and just recently at a Games Day function at the Center, willing gave a loan of Rs. 3000 out of his own 2-year savings of Rs. 7000 to a group of students and community members who want to start income generating programs for self-support.

The agricultural skills that Chadoram himself learned at the center have also come in handy, as he now helps his father in the sugar cane fields.

Chadoram is now receiving so many orders that he plans to train and hire an assistant in order to help him meet demand.

Economic:
“Not having enough money or misusing money is economic poverty. In order to overcome this poverty we should save money and also produce things. For instance children like me can grow vegetables, stitch Adda leaves, or make bags. Saving is keeping a portion of the earnings to the side and learning to budget money.”

Bodily:
“In olden days people used simple remedies for several ailments. Now we use costly medicines for minor ailments and also suffer the side effects. We also dump rubbish everywhere, we are not eating healthy food, we are forgetting that health is wealth. Let us keep our environment clean, let us eat healthy and be hygienic. We can overcome bodily poverty!”

Mental:
“Inability to think is mental poverty. This inability results in feelings of inferiority. This happens due to lack education. It is therefore essential to educate the children of our villages. With education not only do we overcome mental poverty but we gain confidence in doing anything. In our villages only a third of our children are going to school. The educated children will be much able to develop our villages.”

Cultural:
“Culture is our arts and crafts. It brings out our creativity and gives us beauty and a sense of joy and achievement. In addition, the age old traditions that we inherited should be preserved. It is sad that children like me have heard about these arts but never saw them. I fear that we may lose our beautiful arts. May I request you all to stop various modern dances and instead pick one of our 64 arts and craft to revive them.”

Spiritual:
“Spiritual poverty is loss of faith in God and in fellow human beings. Without this faith not much progress can be achieved. To address this poverty we need to first come together for bhajas to worship God. May I suggest this to all elders and youngsters, men and ladies.”

Societal:
“Now a days people have started believing in their welfare without regard to society. This is social poverty. In order to address this poverty everyone should change the way they think: welfare of the society is my welfare, but my welfare is not necessarily that of society. Instead of thinking of what the village has given us we should think of how we can contribute to a village. In this way we can address societal poverty. May I suggest to you all to take 1 min an hour, or half an hour a day or half a day a week toward developing your village.”

There are seven poverties that are affecting us:

1. Economic poverty: lack of food, clothing and shelter
2. Bodily poverty: lack of health and hygiene, malnutrition
3. Mental poverty: lack of thinking and education
4. Cultural poverty: lack of cultural activities and practices
5. Spiritual poverty: lack of mental peace and feeling of brotherhood
6. Political poverty: not casting one’s vote, lack of development
7. Societal poverty: lack of unity and neighborliness

Believing strongly that change and development must come from within, BCT has come to find that the best group to first address these 7 poverties and the ways to overcome them is the high school age group (11-15). These students are trained in the concepts and learn songs and dances that are used to illustrate the various points. They journey out into the villages and perform for the entire community, with the hope that it will inspire others to make positive changes in their lives.