Parveen is planning for the future

25-year old Parveenkaur (Parveen) is mother to four children ranging in age from 9 to 5 years old.   Although she managed to stay in school until the 7th grade, her parents forced her to drop out to get married at the age of 14.  Parveen’s husband works as a caddy at the golf course across the street from the slum where the family lives, and earns about 3,000 rupees ($60) per month, although his income depends on the availability of work and is less during certain seasons.  Parveen is lucky to have a husband who is relatively permissive in allowing her to leave the house unaccompanied; many women from Parveen’s caste and community are not permitted such freedom.

Now that Parveen’s youngest child has started kindergarten, she has decided to take the opportunity to learn a marketable skill during the day when her children are at school and joined the AIC Basic Tailoring Class.  In this class, Parveen and a dozen other women spend two hours every day learning the fundamentals of tailoring under the watchful eye of an experienced teacher.

The class also includes an additional hour of literacy teaching and lunch, as none of the women have completed their educations and many come from situations of food insecurity and poverty.  Parveen hopes that one day she will be able to contribute to her family’s financial standing by learning how to sew and taking orders from within her community.

Thank you so much ,Peggy, Laura, James, Tom, Ivo, and Joe and Karen, for coming together to provide an entire tailoring course to Parveen, thereby allowing her to learn a marketable skill!