Often one adult in a household cannot provide enough income to support even a small family at the most meager level. However, if the woman of the house becomes literate and has a skill, it will result in more money for the necessities of life. Additionally, when the wife and mother has a marketable skill, it will reduce the enormous tensions in an impoverished household.
The town of Chirala has a large and growing clothing manufacturing industry. The CM&E Trust is partnering with the Chikkalas Trust to help teach useful sewing and embroidery skills to women who would never be able to break the stranglehold of poverty without such training. At the Sarojini Sewing School they learn not only how to use a sewing machine, but how to look for and buy quality thread, material and other supplies. They also learn how to run a small business and the traits necessary to be successful. Upon graduating from the Sarojini Sewing School, these young women have learned many skills, gained a new sense of self-worth, and are ready to earn incomes in the huge emerging Indian clothing market.
Contributions to the Chirala Medical and Educational Trust, Inc. provide tuition grants to these promising students. Much satisfaction is found in helping a young woman find dignity as she is equipped to provide additional needed income for her family, or even learn to run a business. For just $1 a day, a woman locked in the prison of poverty can be given the tools to make a better life for herself and her family.