About the Trust

SROTOSHWINI TRUST has been active since 2013 in the field of spreading education amongst underprivileged children. The thought of CHURNI came as a concern of how to make the parents of those children engaged and involved, especially the mothers. So, we approached them and tried to find out more about their skills. Stitching is one skill we found which they could be trained in and eventually excel in over time. Our goals are the following –

  • vocationally train underprivileged ladies who don’t have a source of income
  • sell their products to establish a steady monthly income.

Family Background

Most of the women we work with live in the slums of Jetalpur & Sanjay Nagar, Vadodara. They are uneducated and have never considered working or earning an income. A lot of them are victims of physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse.

Transformation

In our experience of working with the ladies, we’ve witnessed that, once they are trained and start working and earning, they discover a new purpose in life. They realise they can truly change their own life, their children’s lives and start gaining respect from their spouse & extended family as a earning member of the family. It also teaches them the value of an education and learning a vocational skill. It leads to the development of the entire family. An added benefit is that they realise the value of their children getting educated and are more engaged and committed to it.

Impact

In 2019-2020, we had 40+ ladies being supported through the Churni initiative. Covid- 19 has forced many of our ladies to support the family business or move away from the city. Today we have 14 ladies in our Jetalpur unit and 7 girls/ladies in our Lasundra Unit, a total of 21.

Success Stories

KAMALA started working with Churni in 2017. She is the mother of 7 children. She could not go to meet her mother for many years. Needless to say, she could not afford the trip. After working for a year, she decided to go to her hometown to meet her mother. 4 of her children – Radha, Rani, Chhaya and Mansi are students of Pathshala Hostel. Radha & Rani, 11th grade students are also senior members of our Art team & part of the Maindak x Churni initiative. They are being vocationally trained and already earning an income that is being saved in their bank accounts for the future.

MANISHA joined Churni in 2015. An ardent learner Manisha is very serious about her work. Recently she bought a piece of land and started constructing a house near Harni. The earnings from Churni helped her a lot. Her elder daughter Mamta is in Pathshala Hostel. In 2021 she secured 74.3% in her class X exams.

About the Author

Dr. Juin Dutta is President of Srotoshwini Trust and Founder of organizations like Churni and Pathshala & Pathbhavan that work towards empowering women and children. She is Ph D in library and information Science. She has worked in schools for 11 yrs. and in the university for 5 yrs. She has been a social worker for the last 9 years.

www.srotoshwini.org  www.churnicollection.org