Training to Empower Women
An Oregon-based ministry is helping Indian women develop marketable skills through tailoring schools in three cities across India. Thanks to an $8,000 grant from the Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation, India Partners will soon open the Ashajyothis Sewing School, which will train women to sew, thus enabling them to provide for their families. At the end of the sewing training, each woman receives her own sewing machine.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania-based Glad Tidings India is helping women learn to read through its Bible-content literacy classes. In addition to teaching the women to read using the Bible, the classes will teach about basic health and personal hygiene, nutrition and proper diet, pre- and post-natal care and AIDS prevention.
Classes are currently being conducted for 6,000 women in Tamul Nadu. As a result, more than 300 women have accepted Christ and more than 400 are generating an income. Glad Tidings India, which is sponsoring the training in partnership with India Bible Literature, hopes to offer the literacy classes to as many 100,000 women.
