Jaago Foundation's Sewing Centre

When Jaago Foundation lost 18 students from their school to the workforce, due to their need to support their families, they decided to help impoverished parents become financially stable by creating employment for them.

When Jaago Foundation had begun its journey a few years back, the school had lost 18 of its students after returning from a summer vacation. These students belonged to extremely poor households and had to settle at a location where they could work to support their families. The foundation realised that they needed to come up with a plan which would help keep such families rooted to their locality (Rayerbazaar).

Photo:Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

Jaago Foundation set up a sewing centre, where they encouraged the parents to train, by giving them a stipend. As time went by, this motivated more parents to work for the sewing centre. Results were significant; more people could now afford to send their children to school and less were being deprived of their basic rights.
Four years ago, a young Australian volunteer, Amanda, came to Jaago for a month to help eradicate the problem of education inequity. She initiated a business proposal which would further benefit the underprivileged. She showed the workers a sample that she had designed, and asked them to replicate it. After seeing that the test sample was a great turnout, she ordered bulk for retailer stores in Australia under the label 'Bachhara.'

The first line of products came out under the name of some of the students, 'Rana', 'Sonia' and few others, sharing their life stories. “The cost per piece of production amounts to 1000-2000 BDT, and is sold at a reasonable price at various stores in Australia,” says Korvi Rakshand, founder of Jaago Foundation. The money that the foundation now receives goes toward sponsoring some of the children of the school. In addition, a part of it is used to pay the workers' salary. If new workers require training, then a small amount is paid to them as well through this allocated fund.