Bersahara First Handicraft Market

Women from Ujung sewing group during the market

Last September 22nd and 23rd we held the first Handicraft Market with all the bags that the women have learnt to make with Babette. Market was held at Solah Beach and Bar restaurant in Kuta Lombok.

For two days the women had the opportunity to see for themselves the interest people showed, not only in the handicrafts but, also in themselves and their little sewing business. It was good for them to realize the effort it takes to sell and the importance of explaining the nature of the project, the nature of the fabrics and their handmade work.

All products are hand made using locally hand woven fabrics (like Ikats from Sumbawa and Java and Sabuk and Songket from Lombok), with inspiration from modern designs introduced by our volunteer and designer Babette. The women started their training the second week of July, some of them with a very basic knowledge of machine and hand sewing as well as embroidery. Babette has taught them about designing, work processes and organization, cleanliness, concentration and patience. See for yourself the results in only 2 months!

 

 

Although it was a bit intimidating for them at first, since they had never been exposed to so many foreigners who wanted to meet them and talk with them, they managed to use their very basic knowledge of english and their spontaneity to make a 3,500,000Rp sales (around 350US$). This is a great achievement for them and has encouraged them to continue with the learning and hard work and to believe in the little business they have started. We are very confident that this is only the beginning!

Congratulations to all the women and to their teacher, Babette, and their supporter, Ellen!

Group Number 8!

Banyu Urip Group is located in Dusun (hamlet) Lengak Mati, Banyu Urip Village, West Praya Sub District. It takes 1,5 hours by motorbike from Kuta through a very bumpy road. 

The group was started at the end of July 2012 by Aryan, one of the members of Bangkang Group, who is a teacher and very supportive of the methodology. She was so keen that we trained her to start this group on her own. The group has 14 members, all of them farmers with limited education and literacy level. Most of them only speak the local language (Sasak), making it really challenging for the team to work with this group.

During their first meeting after the training, they felt so insecure that they asked the cleric in town to help them with the financial records needed for the savings and loans group. However, thanks to a more thorough explanation they finally accepted to take full responsibility and now have chosen 5 women to take over the president, book-keeping, key and box responsibilities. Although it was challenging for them to do the book keeping, as things like using a calculator and writing numbers are not usual things for them, after almost an hour they managed to finish the task of recording the shares. 

We will continue to encourage them to continue the learning pace in order to progress in the route to empowerment of this group too!

Welcome to all the women in Banyu Urip