if you teach a woman to sew...

here's a little something that is actually in fact quite large.  if our corner of the blogisphere isn't the right place to share it, i don't know where is.

i look at pictures of collapsed buildings and raging fires, the products of which make up far too much of my closet, and i think about the lives of others around the world and the ways in which we simply can't make it all better, and so i stand motionless.  and i am amazed by those who can see past the enormity of problems out there in the world, who are able to do something to make something BETTER. 

two such ladies, nikki and kria (the latter being my friend, and how i came to know about this), have hatched a plan to make something better: empower widows in india with the skills and tools they need to support themselves and their families, through sewing.  why?  well, here, they explain it best:

In India, a widow is the ultimate social outcast. Seen as a burden whose bad luck caused her husband’s death, a widow is stripped of her colorful saris, jewelry, and bindi. A widow is no longer referred to as “she” but “it,” and is expected to mourn the loss of her husband until her death. She is left to care for her dependents with little or no resources.

We are traveling to southern India for two and a half weeks with the goal of establishing a small sewing cooperative for widows in Coimbatore. Ultimately, our hope is to provide economic opportunity and empowerment to women who need it the most.

they've already traveled to coimbatore, to begin the process with their indian counterpart, sister stella baltazar, a woman who runs a support group for over 200 widowed women at the franciscan missionaries of mary.   

it's the kind of thing you wish you had the energy/power/courage to do, yes?  in my case it is.

and of course (and you knew this was coming), we can all be a part of this, by helping to fund their mission. you can check out their indiegogo campaign page, read up on it, and if it's your bag, throw a little change their way. they're almost halfway to their goal.  or, if there's not a dime to spare, you can share their campaign and spread the word.

as a me-maker, as a sewist, as a human, i'm in.  i'd love to see them realize their mission.

 update: thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments and your contributions!  they are so much closer to their goal because of peeps like YOU.