Upscaling Sewing Centers Nepal
The Challenge
Our US-based partner, The Global Uplift Project (TGUP) together with Nepal Women Community Service Center (NWCSC) started a Save a Girl sewing center in Dang 3 years ago with 3 machines and 1 serger. Today this center has grown to have 19 machines and more than 40 trained seamstresses. In addition to sewing washable women’s menstrual pads, the center has manufactured and distributed over 150,000 COVID masks to health care providers and the poor. The center has been so successful in women's empowerment that four more small-scale satellite sewing and training centers were set up in other villages. The challenge has been to scale these satellite centers to become fully equipped training and production centers.
The Innovation
The small-scale centers lacked a sufficient number of sewing machines in addition to a critical finishing machine called a ‘serger’. A serger, also known as an overlock machine, combines three functions into one simple operation-stitching a seam, trimming the excess seam allowance, and overcasting the edge of your fabric-allowing you to achieve professional quality stitching in a short amount of time.
This 3-party joint project provided additional sewing machines and a serger to the four sewing centers in Gadhawa, Bhalubang, Madhakpur, and Holeri villages. An experienced seamstress from the Dang center was assigned to each of the new centers to train 50 new seamstresses.
Long Term Impact
These scaled-up sewing centers at Gadhawa, Bhalubang, Madhakpur, and Holeri in Nepal will train up to a total of 200 women. In addition to washable sanitary pads and facial masks, the seamstresses will sew local dresses, school uniforms, bed sheets, handbags, and much more. These empowered women many from ultra-poor families will acquire a productive and marketable skill set that will enhance the community and lift their families out of poverty.
Laxmi of NWCSC commented “All seamstresses will be so happy when they receive more machines. We are humbled by your support. It will change many woman's lives”
