Dharmapuri,
India
Community
- Fair Wages (100 rupees/day)
Women generally earn 30 rupees per day - Creating Status and Opportunity for Women
Staggering rates of female infanticide (girls face unique challenges) - Over 45% of the price stays in India
- Additional 10% of Proceeds of Sales Donated
Investing in health care - Provides for over 80 people in the village
"The women are so happy to be working…to be making a living and a future."
Mercy Abraham
For updates from the village visit our blog.
How this fair trade gift is making a difference
Impact
Mercy Abraham founded Mahalir Aran Trust, MAT, at the age of 21, 16 years ago.
Today MAT serves a community of over 400 families in surrounding villages – approximately 3,200 people in extreme poverty. People just like Priya and her mother Darshini. At age 9, Priya loves to read and wants to become a teacher when she grows up. Reading to her mother Darshini as she prepares dinner, Priya, her mother, and Mercy enjoy a lighthearted moment in their day.
Our partnership with MAT is helping employ 20 women and through our donations we are supporting a critical new project in the community. The people of Dharmapuri need access to good health care.
MAT will be building a 3,000 sq foot medical clinic. This clinic will provide community health, maternity care, provide lab tests and emergency treatment. It is our goal to raise $100,000 to help establish the clinic by the end of 2010.
The project costs breakdown as follows:
$62,500 for Building and infrastructure (septic, drainage, etc…)
$25,000 for Equipment (exam beds, medical supplies, etc)
$12,500 for Operational costs for one year (assumes donations of pharmaceuticals, etc..)
"To be able to work at the production unit gives me great hope for the future of my family."
Darshini
Our social enterprise model in Dharmapuri, India
Project
ZOË ALLIANCE is honoured to be working with the women of Mahalir Aran Trust. The exquisite, decorative throws made by the production unit will help provide steady employment for 20 women and our goal is to expand the employment opportunities to more women. (Visit our blog to meet the newest members of the team.)
For our first project, 10% of the retail-selling price of each throw will go toward the construction of a medical clinic.
By joining with ZOË ALLIANCE and MAT you are helping create:
- 20 ethical fair trade certified jobs paying 100 rupees per day instead of the 30 rupees women are normally paid.
- A new medical clinic – the closest clinic is approximately 20 km away from the village.
- Hope, laughter, and dreams in the hearts of a community.
Our fair trade artisans from Dharmapuri, India
People
In 1992, Mercy Abraham took the journey into the rural villages of Dharmapuri where she met a destitute 14 year old girl. She shared some food with her. She then met a 9 year old prostitute and a 17 year old with leprosy.
This experience led her to found the Mahalir Aran Trust (MAT) at age 21 and for the past 16 years she has been working amongst these women to create "A place of protection for women" which is what Mahalir Aran means.
Today there are 74 children between the ages of 5 and 17 going to school. There are 3 girls going to university. MAT provides shelter for 60 orphan children and 30 single mothers. They have been able to establish a small farm, an orphanage, a production unit, and plan for a medical clinic. Incredible progress in the face of enormous need!
They are a courageous and industrious community who dream for the future of their children. Their hope is to steadily empower more people as their business grows.
Courage in the face of challenge, India
History
Dharmapuri India is a place of staggering challenges for those who live in the rural areas. Often when a girl child is born the parents despair because they know that they won’t have the three sovereigns of gold and money required to provide a dowry for their child. Many make the choice of letting this precious little one perish.
Recognizing that this district has the highest rate of infanticide in India, the government instituted the baby cradle system to give parents the options of dropping their girls off at the hospitals. By February 27, 2008 the reception centre at the Dharmapuri government hospital had received 1044 babies. Of those children, 41 were male and they were either HIV positive or had a disability.
"Tamil Nadu's cradle baby scheme was supposed to reduce female infanticide. Instead, it is legitimizing the traditional discrimination against the girl child."
PC Vinoj Kumar
The state is working to address this critical issue for their society, however in the meantime there are many women and children in Dharmapuri seeking to overcome tremendous odds to make a living and make a future.