Class on making Bracelets

It was very nice of Sandeep, to drop by APD  (Association of people with disability) on 12th Feb to teach us wristbands. Anitha coordinated this entire effort.

He taught us to make them with the waste bottles and wool!! Folks at APD were excited about learning the new art and quickly lapped it up. Once the bracelet was made, it looked very pretty and no one could guess from what it could have been made.

 

New Center "Shishu Mandir" - By Anitha

Meera got to know about Shishu Mandir through Suman, and proposed we start classes there. We visited Shishu Mandir on Jan 29^th, met the heads of Shishu Mandir – Mr. Seshagiri and Mr. Anand. We decided to start off at Shishu Mandir.

Anitha started our regular classes at Shishu Mandir from 10 Feb 2011. She had nearly 6 girls (studying in 8th and 9th std) and 8 older girls (who come to learn

stitching) in this batch.

Anitha started with quilling and all girls were very keen to learn. Six young girls were very quick to learn and one girl with whatever shapes she had made a face with it.

The man was standing and watching these girls work. Suddenly he came to Anitha and asked for a quilling strip and started rolling the strip !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anitha be going every Thursday to Shishu Mandir from 8am to 9.30am. Anyone interested to join can do so.

 

Birthday order by Suman

Meera showcased the photo frames and fridge magnets to her colleague Suman, who was planning for her daughter's birthday on 4th Feb 2011. Suman, liked them and ordered 10 big photo frames, 36 small photo frames and 82 fridge magnets as return gifts for Zara's class mates and teachers. We were really excited about this order.

We got the parent's wing of Association of People with Disabilty to work on it. This was their first big order for photo frames. But they did a very neat work of the entire lot of the photo frames; I sat with them for about 6 photo frames so that they learn the quilling and assembling it. They did a very neat work of the entire quilling work on the entire lot of photo frames.

Anitha, Lakshmi and me got together and made the magnets so that the money goes to “Living Raaga” funds.

Suman was really pleased and happy at the products, quality and packaging of the products. She did send out a note to her team about “Living Raaga” and our products and also recommended us. :-)

At the end, it was a lovely experience for all of us.

Living Raaga Stall at Rotract on 26 Dec

- Article by Sindhu


As 2010 was going to end, on Dec 26^th Living Raaga had a stall in Rotary Udyog's Dashamanotsava function, Peenya, Bangalore. This event was organized by a group of young Rotractors. Anand, who is a rotractor and a member of Living Raaga was the brain behind putting up a stall at the event.Kavya,Kokila,Lakshmi and Sindhu managed the stall, scheduled between 4pm-6:30pm.

The stall was a small classy set-up with bright posters and colorful products. It drew a few people to the stall and they wanted to know about Living Raaga. Volunteers explained to them about L.R's birth, objectives and how it functioned.

About 1k worth products were sold. Though the sale was not as expected, it was indeed a great platform for Living Raaga and there was an unbelievable encouragement from the club members.

Rotract had organized a talk on "Managing Money", after which Anand spoke about "Living Raaga".The Rotract President was very encouraging, he bought some products too.

Finally it was a great experience for each one.

Living Raaga team met on 5th Dec

Living Raaga's second meeting was held in Cubbon Park on 5^th December 2010. Meeting was scheduled to start at 10:30 am but by the time it started it was 12:00 pm.

Nine of us made it to the Cubbon Park - Lakshmi, Meera, Bhavana, Anand, Vinutha, Raj, Anitha, Kavya and Kokila.  Anand, Kokila and Kavya are the new joinees to Living Raaga.

The session comprised of introduction, status of each center and what each one of us are up to in Living Raaga and finally, what new products we want to start teaching, making posters and website for Living Raaga. Whole discussion about the products went as a bouncer for the new members. But, as soon as we laid out the existing products, they were just plugged in. Kokila and Kavya shared their new designs and thoughts on new products, Anand immediately arranged a stall at Rotract Peenya on 26^th December, 2010.

We spent about two hours having meaningful discussion. The whole session was scintillating, energizing and inspiring.

Living Raaga Stall at Cisco

On 21st October 2010, Deepavali celebration organized by my division (BASE) at Cisco.On Shyam's suggestion and with his help, we put up the "Living Raaga" stall at Cisco BASE Division.

We spread the Thornas, Rangolis and quilled magnets across two tables, the bright colours and the golden glitters drew the crowd. Since the concept of rangolis, wasn't very evident to the people, I spread out a rangoli and decorated it with flowers. It helped people to visualize its application.

Surprisingly it was the Kalasa Rangoli that got sold off the fastest, followed by the Lamp Rangoli. Unlike Thompson Reuters stall, where Quilled magnets got sold off at the last!!

It was interesting to see, some men getting confused of what each thing was J. And some of them, who intended to help, asked me to just pick something for them :-).

By end of the event, we sold about 2k worth articles and got 1k worth order!!

Visit to Rachina Doddi

Planning for visiting the Rachina Doddi started in September 2010. About 20 women were to attend the workshop. We planned to divide the total women into groups four groups, teach each group one art. The women could cross train themselves. Lakshmi and me met at Chickpet and bought a whole lot of art material to teach and give away.

On Oct 9th at 11:30 am we reached Rachina Doddi. The team consisted of Matilda and Divya from Soroptimist international, Durga, Anitha, Lakshmi, Meera, Bhavana, Sindhu and Vinutha. 

The Group

At the Village

The village Rachina Doddi is about 15 kms from the Kanakpura town. It is not accessible by public transport system, survives mainly on farming, education hasn’t reached the village, only recently Soroptimist International built restrooms, in short the village is pretty laid back. We wanted to teach women folk some art, which they can leverage to get more money.

We had planned to teach them - Thoranas, side hangings, Jute coasters and Diwali hangings. But, we realized that they haven't really even cut papers till date, and it was very important that we do something that will hold their attention and intention till end of the workshop. We then picked up the simplest and the most colorful art, the "Side hangings". We started off with Side hangings and decided to pick other arts based on their interest.

Class in progress

Class in Progress

Class in Progress

We had around 20 women join the class; we divided them into three groups. We taught two groups in the ruined Anganwadi building, and the third group sat on the verandah of localite. The side hangings did catch their attention and interest. The women keenly did the side hangings for about an hour. We then switched to the thorana, quiet a few women struggled to cut the paper and OHP sheets in right shape. The crown of all our achievements was that, Bhavana succeeded in teaching two women macramé coasters.

Side hangings Complete

Side hangings Completed

  

Thorana Completed

Macrame Completed

We tried to create awareness amongst women, about the benefits of pursuing this art. The huge market they could tap with their art and the monetary benefits. About 13 women did come forward and expressed their interest to continue the art and sell it. We told them how they could take the help of the local volunteering group and get the material, and then send the final product to us for marketing.

Hoping that the project will take off in the village, we headed back to Bangalore at 4pm.