Partnership Overview

The plight of women in India is quite desperate. Many are poorly educated and their husbands are daily workers. Tom* and his wife are very keen to help women to flourish in their families. Many are not able to earn an income as they do not have much, if any, of an education. If they do get work, it will be very low wages and they have to be away from home for weeks at a time. There is very little industry in the area, most people are peasant farmers, fishermen and daily labourers. Due to their low education most women go to Kolkata city to work as maid servants and daily labourers in factories.

This partnership attempts to address this issue by training women to sew. The plan is to train 15 women per year for 3 years and to then assess the impact. This project has the potential to significantly impact the lives of many women and their families.  

Some people have already been trained in a small pilot project they ran to assess the viability of such a programme. The women who participated were very thankful for what they learned hence Tom and his wife are keen to set this up to run on a larger scale and help more ladies. It would be expected that those who become involved will:
1) Become self-sustaining with no further need to borrow money from others and they will learn to earn money, many of them for the first time in their lives.
2)  They will learn to develop their skills and be able to able to help others.
3) They will learn to live in a mixed community. Many Christians and Hindus have never spent much time with each other. This will break down many barriers.
4) This will give them opportunity to develop their personality and hidden talents and learn to respect each other. This will strengthen their character.
5) They will learn to know God and be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.   

History of Partnership

BHW personnel first meet Tom at the IBCM conference in Rome in 2019.  Subsequent to that meeting, the BHW New Partnership Facilitator visited him in India, spent four days with him, and saw firsthand the various ministries of the the trust he runs. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, he was subsequently unable to undertake any further visits to India but remained in regular contact with Tom.

Due to the fact a number of our other partners around West Bengal know the team here, they often all work together and they highly recommended him to us (as did one of our donor partners in the UK who have also supported them from time to time), the BHW Executive approved commencing this partnership despite only having actually visited once.    

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries here will be both church believers and community people, irrespective of religion, caste and tribe. The majority of the people come from poor backgrounds and live below the poverty line. Most are illiterate or have little education, below the 10th grade.  

What We Like About The Partnership

These are good people and the team is very strong. This project addresses a real need in the community.
They have the capacity to run the programme with good people.
The target of this project is the people we are very interested to assist. 

Key People

Leadership Profile

Tom* is the key contact person. He was born and brought up in a godly family. When he was 18 years of age, he read Ecclesiastes 11:9 "Be happy young man .... but know God will bring to judgment" and the Lord spoke to him. He realised that even though he had been born into a believing family he was not a believer. Since then he has grown in his faith and became a leader in the church. 

In 1978 he joined Operation Mobilization in India and went through discipleship training as well as other training. He trained on the OM Logos ship for one year for more training after seminary. He completed a BTh in 1979.

He is currently pastoring a church and for more than 30 years he has been involved in Christian work. He also shares his leadership in a bigger leadership team. The Lord has been using him to train others for organizing family conferences, Christian leadership training, Christian literature distribution and other children's ministry.

Other People Involved

Tom's wife is also part of the project, organising the day to day sewing programme and encouraging the women. She was also involved with Operation Mobilization for more than four years with six months on the Doulos ship in India. 

There are other believers from the local church who are involved, some of them are qualified teachers. They have taught in a mission school, have a good education and will be able to come alongside the women in the programme and help in leadership. 

Vision And Annual Strategy

Vision 

The vision is to help women become self-supporting by providing them with one year training to teach them tailoring and provide them with a  sewing machine and other tools.
- This will enable them to save money by no longer needing to go to the tailoring shop
- The women will be able to earn money by using their sewing machine at home
- They may open a little shop at home
- They may train other women, and the whole community can be self-supporting
- There is an opportunity to share the gospel and reach the whole community with the gospel
- There will be opportunity to invite their children to children's clubs
- The ultimate aim to win them for Christ

Strategy

They will begin the sewing course with 15-20 women in their home. The classes will run for two hours, two days a week. There will be two teachers. 

Annual Budget

The budget for each course is US$3,300. 

*name has been changed