In association with APJ Jeeva Dayavu Trust, Cuddalore District, Nanban Foundation conducts vocational courses to increase employment opportunities for women in rural India. Through this initiative, Nanban operates tailoring workshops and issues professional course completion certificates. To date, the project has helped over 100+ rural women, who are often physically challenged and/or widows.

Since Feb. 22, 2020, Nanban Foundation has conducted free tailoring training to improve the quality of life of rural women and girls in Karunguli—a village in the Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu. Due to poverty, teenage girls in the region often must drop out of high school to marry and work as temporary farm workers, sweepers, or manual scavengers. When equipped with practical skills like tailoring, these women are able to gain financial independence. Women in rural communities often remain outside the scope of government assistance programs due a lack of thorough implementation, so Nanban Foundation has taken on the mission of empowering individuals through free training programs.

The program began in February with six volunteers and 19 students, and today 100+ students have received free tailoring training. In the future, we aim to expand the program beyond tailoring and teach a variety of skills, such as candle and soap making as well as typewriting.