Chennai: As and when children with intellectual disabilities grow up, big questions loom over their future – “What is their life going to be like? How are they going to be productively engaged? How will they earn a living?”
Thanks to NGOs Maithree, We Can and Vasantham, these looming questions now have a ‘handloom’ solution through project Weawin. Weavin sees the three NGOs joining hands to employ young intellectually challenged adults to hand weave cloth, which is then designed and modelled to aesthetically crafted every day fashion accessories like purses and bags, for sale.
The proceeds are given to the special children for every metre of cloth they weave. On Tuesday, when the world celebrated the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, Project Weavin was officially launched by Commissioner of Police, A K Viswanathan, and Apollo Group of Hospitals vice-chairperson Preetha Reddy.
Speaking to News Today, We Can director Gita Srikanth said, “The journey of Weawin started four years back. We learnt that weaving is a repetitive process and children with intellectual challenges find it easy to learn and it is therapeutic for them. So, we acquired local looms and started teaching the children to weave.”
“But, the local looms we got first were not very conducive for the children with special needs to practice. So, Naresh, the managing director of Shuttles and Looms, a centre that celebrates the art of weaving, made available good quality Saori looms that are easy for the children to use. He provided us with good quality yarns and the children started enjoying weaving,” Gita said.
Shortly after the Saori looms were introduced, 25 young adults from NGOs involved with Project Weavin seem to have really been captivated by the art of weaving and had woven metres of cloth. Now the NGOs face a problem of what to do with these woven materials.
This is where businessman Naresh came to their rescue with an idea to create fashionable accessories for daily use and sell it in bulk and revert the profits back to the children who wove the cloth.
Established city-based designers like Kalyani Pramod jumped in readily into the venture and thus Weavin was officially under way.
Speaking about the children’s designs, Kalyani says that the products designed by the special children are very unique in design and requests the public not to think of them as just cliched projects made by the disabled.
The designer says, “We show ourselves as designers. But the special children have shown themselves as great creators. No two products will have the same colour elements. The USP of Weawin’s products are not that it is designed by people with disabilities, but the distinctive designs and quality of the product itself.”
Gita Srikanth says Weavin will inspire a movement that will grow beyond just the three NGOs and involve more individuals with challenges. “The children with disabilities can grow to become young adults who can sustain themselves and lead a dignified life without having to depend on others for their needs through Weawin,” she says with hope.
| BUY AND SAVE |
| Weawin is a unique joint venture involving three NGOs – Maithree, We Can and Vasantham – working with the rehabilitation of intellectually challenged children and young adults. The 100 per cent handwoven cotton fabric by the children under project Weawin is converted into a range of products by a professional designer and has options for various gift hampers including corporate gifting. Weawin sells products such as laptop sleeves, bags, wallets for men and women, sling bags, lampshades and so on through their website www.weawin.com |