India Fundraiser | Women’s Interlink Foundation

The Village Experience has partnered with Women’s Interlink Foundation in Kolkata, India for many years. We whole-heartedly believe in their holistic mission to prevent trafficking, create rehabilitation programs, provide support to those most in need, and bring awareness to the issues vulnerable women face everyday. Over the years, we have been involved in the implementation of sustainable programs in source villages in the Shantiniketan area. We have played an active role in efforts to rescue and rehabilitate young girls through income-generating programs such as fair trade production, spice grinding, baking, block-printing, and others. We have supported programming for the street kids drop-in centers and red light district drop-in centers around the city - designed to protect and create a safe space for young boys and girls living in vulnerable situations. We were a reliable support system for Women’s Interlink Foundation throughout the COVID pandemic and provided oxygen, thermal guns, glucometers, vitamin C supplements, nutritious food, masks, hand sanitizer, gloves, hygiene items, medicine, laptops and Wi-Fi, and warm clothing for the girls.

The goal for our October 2023 trip is to provide much needed funding for the rehabilitation programs implemented throughout Women’s Interlink Foundation’s network. Due to the lasting effects of COVID on the local economy, their past corporate sponsor of these programs has had to pull funding…leaving the organization in desperate need of money to continue this programming. Over 300 vulnerable women have graduated from the program and moved on to employment and starting a new life outside of the shelters. We want this trend to continue and ask for your help in raising funds to support the following programs for the next year.

BLOCK PRINTING AND SCREEN PRINTING UNIT

    

This unit teaches the young women the art of hand block printing and screen printing to design beautiful artisan products
such as scarves, handbags, bed linens, saris, and more.

$6800
is needed for the teacher, training materials, and equipment.

TAILORING UNIT

     

This unit teaches the young women the skills required to use various sewing and embroidery machines to create
clothing, handbags, makeup bags, shopping bags, quilts and more.

$5500
is needed for the teacher, training materials, and equipment.

SPICE GRINDING AND COOKING UNIT

This unit works with the young women to learn the process of breaking down ingredients and creating popular spices used in Indian cuisine.
It then teaches the women the basics of cooking and baking.

$4000
is needed for the teacher, training materials, and equipment.

This unit works with the artisans in the village of Bolpur in the Shantiniketan area. This is considered a source area for human trafficking making it essential to teach and train young women to earn an income and prevent them from falling victim to traffickers.