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Empowering Lives, Transforming Futures:
Project Aakriti's triumphant skill training initiative

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Success Story

Empowering Underprivileged Women: Batik Painting Training at Santiniketan, West Bengal (Feb-Mar 2024)

What is Project Aakriti?

Project Aakriti, initiated by the MG SocialCare Foundation, is a pioneering endeavor aimed at uplifting the underprivileged through skill development in the realms of painting and arts. Recognizing the transformative power of creativity, this workshop serves as a platform to foster talent, instill confidence, and offer avenues for economic empowerment among marginalized communities.

Who are the beneficiaries?

Background: All our trainees are from economically disadvantaged families. Their family members work as auto drivers, plumbers, and street hawkers.

Objective: Throughout the training, our participants have fostered a vision to establish a community. Together, they aim to operate as a cohesive team, generating sales within Shantiniketan and partnering with us to enhance visibility and promote sales further.

How we started? The Work Process

Identifying the village

The groundwork began with visits to various villages. The primary objective was to identify a village with potential for hosting the workshop.

Meeting the Pradhan

Once the village was identified, our mentor Bivash Bishnu Choudhury met the Pradhan to discuss about the training workshop

Meeting Recap

Strategy Discussion with Pradhan, MG West Bengal Mentor, and Foundation Core Team

Beneficiaries Selection Tailored to Village Needs

Pradhan meticulously compiled the list of beneficiaries according to our foundation's stringent criteria for shortlisting. This criteria was carefully tailored to align with the specific needs of the village. He handpicked individuals who demonstrated a sincere commitment to self-improvement and were prepared to invest the necessary effort to achieve success.

The Role of the Pradhan (Syamal Konar)

The Pradhan plays a crucial role in envisioning the village as a significant cultural hub within Shantiniketan, Birbhum, West Bengal. He aspires for the village to establish its unique identity, particularly in local handicrafts such as Batik and Kantha Stitch.
He is very clear on the goal to be simple and focused – every household sustains itself through the collective efforts of all adults residing within.
The objective is only one, to do whatever it takes to establish Shantiniketan as heart of everyone, where people visit and purchase some unique varieties, thereby generating revenue for these families to improve their quality of life.

Pradhan with our West Bengal Mentor Bivash

A brief intro of our Trainer (Ms. Bannya Khan)

Ms. Bannya Khan brings over two decades of experience , exhibiting exceptional skill and profound understanding of the art form.
Serving as a remarkable mentor, she individually assisted each participant, ensuring that each of them could overcome any challenges related to the art with precise guidance.
She devoted 2 days every week for the training herself, while assigning some practice sessions during the other days.

The Budget & The Time Line

The journey to determine the final cost involved navigating through four phases during the one-month training period. These phases encompassed expenses such as the trainer’s visit, as well as the costs of fabric, raw materials, and miscellaneous items. Initially budgeted at 50,000, the actual expenditure amounted to 45,000

Week 1 and 2

Trainees were guided on all the basics of Batik painting – right from tracing the design to waxing and dyeing the fabric

Week 3 and 4

Assignment Week: The trainees were busy in Practice Sessions, producing the final Batik outputs

Last day of the workshop

On the final day of the week, the mentor, trainer, and trainees were fully engaged in preparing for the exhibition to showcase their work to the public

The Training Model

Daily training and practice sessions
Foundation’s West Bengal Mentor along with the trainer were there for monitoring, reviewing and guiding the trainees
Conducting research and analysis to explore various designs and potential products achievable through Batik
Exploring avenues of innovation to introduce unique elements and enhance value for the target market.

Impact of COO’s visit

COO Smriti Bhatia’s visit was a big value add because she understood the point of view of the participants better sitting face to face with them.
Resolutions were provided to their questions.
More trust came in as they could feel someone travelling all the way for them to make them comfortable.
Beneficiaries extremely delighted to know that the Foundation will bee with them till the time they feel the need of any kind of support required.

The end products

A wide variety of Hankies, Stoles, Blouse pieces, Sarees, Kurtas, Dupattas in varied colors and batik prints

Explore more on our SHOP HANDMADE BATIK ITEMS

Exhibition on 8th March 2024

After a month-long journey of dedication and skill-building, these remarkable women, supported by the tireless efforts of Team MG SocialCare have transformed their vision into beautiful works of art.
As a part of womens day celebrations, we were thrilled to announce the successful completion of our batik training workshop cum exhibition featuring Batik painted fabrics, lovingly crafted by these underprivileged women from Shantiniketan!
The participants were very happy showcasing their work and with some products being sold.

Strategies & Roadmap ahead

Offer diverse skill training opportunities to a majority of non-working women, men, and differently-abled individuals in the village by the end of 2024.
Implement alternative income-generating initiatives.
Facilitate access to government assistance via our MG Social Care Foundation.
Create a platform for selling locally handmade products.
Ensure minimal interference from middlemen in the process.

Empowerment starts with a single step, but this is only the beginning… Many more to come

Create, Nurture & Empower We create opportunities for many through skill training - especially for women, Sr citizens, transgenders & differently-abled

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MGSocialCare.org provides people from all walks of life with business and empowerment opportunities through varied skill training programs.

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