The first two days in India Text

We visited Women India Trust (WIT) which offers a school for young children, while their mothers work as textile workers making block prints, appliqué, or silkscreen. These women were extremely poor and have been given this piece work, skill development and education for their children. They sell their products all over the world at a fair trade rate. They also provide education for women in the trades of teaching and nursing. The school is certified and is offered to those with qualifications and financial need. Most costs are covered. The uniforms are made ing the sewing shop by the textile workers.

Avani was our second stop. This organization is led by a powerhouse of a woman who is fighting child labor in the sugar cane fields and brickyards. She is operating at three different levels; 

1. Offering educational opportunity to the children of 300 migrant worker families in the sugar cane plantations. She had to fight the plantation owners because they were breaking  the child labor laws. And fought she did! These families build temporary (3month) shelters of sugarcane stalks. they travel with their animals.

2. She also created a school at 13 of the 40 brickyards that had been and still do use child labor. Kids had the job to carry bricks across the yard - 1,000 bricks for $.30. Heavier than American style bricks. Workers dig the clay, make the bricks, move the bricks, and load them onto trucks. Just recently they started using mules to replace the children workers. The schools are on the same grounds where the parents are working.

3. A residential school for children from the previous two for those kids who have lost their parents to death or other challenges (mental health issues). The foundation has bought 5 acres of land and are building earth bag structures and beginning a farm for sustainability.

Most of these children in educational programs are breaking the bonds of uneducated, migrant worker poverty based livestyle. That's the hope anyway.