This Christmas, swap your high-street shopping with trinkets from NGOs that will help the disabled and the disadvantaged
Kshitij
The season of joy should be for everyone. And so, instead of heading to popular fast-fashion shops for your Christmas gifting needs, why not follow this guide of five NGOs you can check out to buy gifts, which are not only made by people with disabilities and the underprivileged, but the proceeds later become their salaries. Let the festivities begin!
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Gifts for your children
The bags made by an NGO called Samvit Sudha makes bags and students from Kshitij do stencil painting and block printing on various themes and motifs
Kshitij, known as a sheltered workplace for intellectually challenged adults, is an NGO located near Opera House. It has been at the forefront of training, empowering and employing adults with intellectual abilities for the past 25 years. Beena Modak, one of the four trustees and co-founders of the NGO, says that currently, the youngest adult is 20 years old and the oldest is 45, but they encourage people to stay for as long as they want. Besides lifestyle, stationery and festive products, the NGO has a wide variety of kids’ products and chocolates and cookies. Items such as the kiddie backpacks, aprons, table mats, pouches, etc are made by another NGO called Samvit Sudha, which works with women in the interiors of Karnataka and Maharashtra. “On those bags,” says Modak, “we do stencil painting or even block printing.” The abled students are taught to paint using a sponge and they paint the background white and later, the students with better motor skills dabble with the shading and fine details, explains Modak. They have a variety of stencils based on themes, festive designs and also animal motifs for children. Each student receives a weekly stipend here. The bag pack costs Rs 375.
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TO BUY: kshitij-ngo.org
Taking care of your bag needs
Founded in 2000, Advitya is a vocational training centre in Santa Cruz where they work with differently-abled and mentally challenged adults with conditions like Down’s syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy. “We take students who have not been taken by any other institute, the difficult lot which cannot be handled in other institutes and work with them,” says Anjali, the founder. They have students between the age group of 17 and 64 who are trained at the NGO. “We use with colour and music as therapy to get them out of their condition, and keep them happily occupied. To do that, we make these products which are bright and attractive so our students also feel tempted to work on them.
The students at Advitya paint with sponge and use different stencils on the bags made by 27 women in slums who are the sole breadwinners for the family. Pics/Nimesh Dave
They have a variety of cloth bags, car tissue holders, pouches, folding bags, and many more that are made by 27 women whom they have identified in slums and are the sole breadwinners for their family. Once the product is made, it is the job of the students at Advitya to beautify them. This process includes sticking sequence, diamonds, colourful batches, mirror work to ensure that the entire look of the bag changes. This way, no two products look exactly the same. “This work keeps them relaxed, calm and happy as it is very colourful. Their hyper-ness and aggressiveness vanishes because they are happy,” says Anjali. The students get a monthly stipend. Their car tissue holder is priced at Rs 300 and the folding bag at Rs 700.
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TO BUY: advitya.com
A memorable trinket
The Christmas trees are made from scrap fabric and can be kept on your desk as well
Malad-based NGO Aftertaste strongly believes in Art for Empowerment. Their vision is to empower women from economically disadvantaged communities and empower them to break the vicious cycle of social and economic poverty. They try to be as sustainable as possible. Their Christmas tree, which can be put on your desk, is made out of scrap fabric. They collect scrap and leftover fabric from tailors and other companies, says Shalini Datta, founder of Aftertaste. “The first step of the Christmas tree is sifting through fabric to find pieces of cloth which could be Christmas-themed such as red, green, golden in colour,” she says.
These recycled Christmas baubles are made by old CDs, which are painted in Christmas themes
Right from finding, to sifting, cutting and stitching up the tree, all is done by the women. A team of five women is deployed for Christmas trees. The idea is to train unskilled women to ensure they earn a livelihood in a dignified manner. They also offer other Christmas ornaments and trinkets made out of felt and fabric. Their CD baubles are also upcycled from old CDs, which are painted in Christmas themes. The fabric Christmas tree is priced at Rs 300 and the CD baubles at Rs 150.
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TO BUY: aftertaste.co.in
A gift for every occasion
Giftabled has pen stands, notebooks and many other products made by people with disabilities and those who are disadvantaged. Their festive hamper has Christmas tree shaped candles, a card and chocolates
Bengaluru-based Giftabled is fostering a sense of inclusion for people with disabilities and those who are disadvantaged by providing them vocational training and upskilling across various parts of India. Most of their training centres are currently in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka. Their training includes tailoring of bags, mushroom making, masala making, papier mache products, and various other corporate gifting options. They have notebooks and pen stands too. For the festive season, they have hampers which include Christmas tree-shaped candles, cards and chocolates. A set of two Christmas-themed candles are for Rs 360.
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TO BUY: giftabled.com
A sustainable gift
The leafware collection at Shraddha Charitable Trust and the paper bags are made by their students. The recycled biscuit wrapper bag is made by another NGO and they add a tassel on it. Pics/Bipin Kokate
Shraddha Charitable Trust, founded in 1998, is an NGO and a sheltered workshop for people with autism and developmentally delayed adults who have completed their schooling in special schools but didn’t get employment opportunities. Currently, they have people between the ages of 18 and 58 who get a monthly stipend and make lifestyle products. Even though their recycled biscuit wrapper clutch and bags are made by an NGO using recycled plastic swatches, the inputs by students at Shraddha is to add a tassel.
They believe that no product should be sold as is, without the contribution of their students, even if it is just 10 per cent. However, the products which have 90-95 per cent inputs by the students are their leafware, which is cutlery made out of leaves.
For Christmas, they also have stockings, cards and bags which are made by children in all sizes. The bags are made entirely by them, right from folding, sticking to decorating with either stencil or embellishments. Their leafware collection starts from Rs 40, and their recycled biscuit wrapper clutch is priced at Rs 800.
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TO BUY: shraddhamumbai.org
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