Lata’s chance to shine – Ashraya Initiative

As a child, Lata was not able to attend school past the 5th grade because of her community’s belief in the futility of educating girls. She is now 24, and has been married for three years to her husband, who sells cutlery door to door and earns about 300 rupees ($5) per day on a good day. She is also the proud mother of a two-year-old son, whom she dotes on day and night.

Lata has always yearned to continue her education and expand her horizons to be a good role model for her son and future children. She is hardworking and motivated, and recently sought out an opportunity to better her future at the AIC Health and Community Outreach Centre in the slums near her house. There, she attends daily 2 hour long Basic Tailoring classes, to gain a foundation in basic sewing skills. She is excited to continue on to the Advanced Tailoring class after completing the six-month-long Basic class, and hopes that she will be able to start taking orders for custom tailoring pieces from within the surrounding community once she has completed these classes and gained some practice. So far, Lata is doing very well in the class and her tailoring teacher believes that she will go far.

Lata also loves that there is a literacy component to the class, an additional one hour per day after the tailoring component. She further benefits from the meals that are available to her and her classmates at the AIC Centre. As the majority of women in India are anemic, healthy, fresh meals are a welcomed change for a woman like Lata.