Burma Assist, India
“The ability to support themselves, stand on their own feet and providing confidence to the vulnerable is a common theme that comes up in a majority of the stories of the graduates.” – Vijay Rajkumar, Burma Assist’s support specialist
Burma Assist is an international organisation that aims to tackle poverty in some of the most marginalized sections of the Burmese people, by assisting them run projects needed for developing sustainable livelihoods.
The Chin community faces a constant struggle in accessing basic amenities such as food, housing and clean drinking water. Being beaten up, molested and raped is a constant fear they face whether at their workplace, on the street, or even within the confines of their houses. Due to this, many of them suffer severe psychological problems.
As earning livelihood is one of the major concerns of the Chin community in Delhi, an attempt was made to find out how many people are trained in employability skills. Out of 801 respondents only 18.4 per cent or 147 persons were trained in some skills.
Since November 2011 when PAWA started funding, the Dorcas Centre has trained 79 girls and women with the skills and confidence to be able to help them survive in this environment. Furthermore, The Dorcas Centre is now completely self sufficient.
In the most recent review (November 2014) of the graduates surveyed 72% of the graduates were earning with the skills learnt (reasons for not earning were mostly health related). The majority of the remainder were saving money with their skills.
PAWA funded the Dorcas Centre, which runs six month tailoring courses to help vulnerable girls in the Burmese refugee community to learn a skill to enable them to support themselves, their families.
55 girls benefitted from the courses provided. The Dorcas Centre is now completely self sufficient.