Reena looks forward to earning her living as a tailor

14-year-old Reena is one of five siblings who moved with their mother to the urban slums of Pune recently. Prior to that, the family was living in a small village in Gujarat, where the parents and oldest children earned a living breaking larger stones into smaller stones for construction work. In search of a better livelihood, the family shifted to the city one year ago. Reena, who had studied up until 7^th standard in a Gujarati-medium school in the village, has not been going to school since the move, as the majority of the local government schools in Pune are taught in a different language. To fill her time, she helps her mother sell cloth material from door-to-door to earn some money, and recently enrolled in the AIC Basic Tailoring class with her older sister to learn a marketable skill.

Reena and her sister Jaya attend the classes every day, and have made great strides in learning the foundations of basic tailoring. Once the 6-month class comes to a close, they are already making plans to continue on to the Intermediate Tailoring course together. They have also made many new friends in the class, which has helped to ease the transition to a new neighborhood, as they bond over their sewing projects and cups of tea together at the centre. Under the guidance of the women’s literacy teacher who spends an hour with the tailoring class girls and women every day, Reena also feels encouraged to continue her education, and is hoping that she can rejoin school this year.

Thank you, Amiee (x3), Ravi, Rupali and Alka for helping Reena to learn a skill.