Visit to Connexions and China Town!

This morning we visited Connexions where women living in the slum area make bags, scarves, purses and bed covers from recycled saris. We met Bapi Bag who gave us a tour. Connexions was founded 12 years ago by a couple from Switzerland who were greatly moved  when they witnessed the immense need for women living in the slum areas to be able to work to help support their families. The project began with just six women who following  a six month training period were able to begin work on orders getting paid per piece. They now have over 150 women working, many of these women from home, and their hope is to become more widely known so that more orders can be fulfilled and more women are able to receive the training. They would like to  be in the position to pay the women salaries but are currently not able to do so and can only pay them per piece. This means when the orders are few that the women do not earn much.

We were also told that the women take part in a Christian worship session every morning as well as weekly Bible studies.

Krishna

Krishna, one of the longest serving workers,  shared her story with us of how she came to be working at Connexions. She came from a Hindustani family and when she was widowed and left with two small children she made the decision to move to Kolkata  to live with her mother. Krishna needed a job badly and heard about Connexions and was fortunate to be accepted to go on the six month training course. When Krishna contracted tuberculosis  the Swiss couple made  sure that her children were cared for and that Krishna was admitted into a very good hospital and covered all the expenses. Krishna later had appendicitis and again was cared for by the couple from Switzerland.

Whilst recuperating she returned home to her family for a while and it was at that time her husband's youngest brother proposed to her. After some deliberation and her family's blessing they were married and they both moved back to Kolkata where he has also found work.

She had no knowledge about God before she came to work for Connexions but she is currently getting ready to be baptised. I was touched by the women working here and the impact this has had and is having on their lives. Connexions wants to be a place where women's educational, vocational, social, emotional and spiritual needs are met.

Some of the scarves that the women make from recycled saris.

At present most of the products they produce are for the export market and they work with Freeset to help them with exporting the items as Connexions do not yet have an export licence. All the products are very beautiful. Their latest initiative is to make clothing for the local market such as Salwar Kamise as the other products would prove too expensive for the locals to buy.

We were then given the opportunity to purchase some of the items which of course we were only too happy to do!

Bapi with some of the women we met today

After this we returned briefly to the guest house before being taken out for lunch by Mr Asit Ghose, Pastor Asis and Anu. They took us to a wonderful restaurant in China Town and this was a real treat!

Me, Anu and Anj