One of the biggest challenges we've faced during this project is helping the women understand what it means to be part of and effectively run a cooperative.
None of the women we're working with have ever held a job. In fact, they've never even seen a workplace. They've never visited their Mom or Dad at work or spent more than a few minutes inside a factory. In fact, many of these women have never even imagined what a formal workplace might be like.
By definition, a cooperative is a jointly owned commerical enterprise that produces and distributes goods and services and is run for the benefit of the owners.
So these women are suddenly finding themselves both employees and business owners of a sewing cooperative.
... a month ago 90% of this cooperative had never picked up a sewing needle. One would think that the idea of beginning a business and taking out a loan to fund it would be daunting, and that some of the women would seem unsure or uneasy about the future.
But that isn't the case. These women are confident and forward thinking. They recognize this project as an opportunity to gain precious income that will help their families start a slow trek upward to a better life for everyone. For them, there are no other opportunities for employment, this is the first chance they have had in their lives to earn steady income.
Only a couple of the women graduated from high school. They may never have considered ideas like how to effectively price a product, or the merit in choosing organic materials over non-organic (which is a completely foreign concept here), or even the idea of having a work schedule that must be followed.
But they do know that another opportunity like this might not ever come again, and so they're willing to try their best this time.
