Asha’s Story of Hope in India – (Read Time: 1 min.)
Overcoming a Lack of Education
“There are no opportunities in India if you don’t have a good education, and all I have is a skill I learned from my mother. My mother taught me basic weaving and braiding.
I shaped up this skill and polished it to become a Team leader in this workshop where today, I have nine women working with me. Every day, coming to work and having a sense of responsibility and accountability for my work gives me pride in what I do.
A Caring Community
I cannot imagine life without my work. I met with an accident in my kitchen two years ago when I was deep frying. Health insurance and government facilities are very bad in India. We couldn’t afford a private hospital, so I asked for help from our workshop owners. They admitted me to a private hospital where I was treated for burns. I was really concerned about how I was going to pay the money back, but the owners waived off the entire bill.
Real Hope
At the moment my son, who works in a tea shop, and I are providing everything. My husband is out of work. Our Trades of Hope order came just before the 2-month COVID-19 lockdown in India. A lot of factories didn’t pay their workers who had to migrate back on foot to their hometowns. I’m very lucky to work with this Artisan community. Although there was a lockdown, our workshop continued to pay us.
We have a light joke about this in our workshop – that Trades of Hope has really given us hope!” – Asha, Leather Traveler Bag Artisan in India
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