GSPCL-Rising Hope for weavers & Spinners

This following blog page is to update our esteemed stake holders about our products and on field activities.With this new initiative it is envisaged that we will be able to connect our customers in a better way and partners also for which they will provide necessary feedback which will be extremely beneficial for our improvement

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 Could not stop myself from sharing it with all.  A strong motivational quote indeed. No matter whatever you do, just be at it........

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Newsletter.pdf

Dear Partners, 

The newsletter of the previous quarter is uploaded herewith. Looking forward to hear from you all, as we are always striving for improvement.

Happy Reading :)

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Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection

Kim Collins

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ERA Trendz - Weave of the East

Speaking globally, the Kamrup district, especially the southern belt of the district is famous for its #S-Eri-Culture spinning and weaving activities is not unknown to everyone.

Grameen Silk Producer Company Limited (GSPCL), under the aegis of Grameen Sahara has tried to take a small leap ahead in this domain by relating Eri-Silk with variety of other products in the form of blend or with naturally dyed products.

ERA Trendz- Weave of the east is a result of such untiring effort which is set to create a new brand in fashionable clothing. It’s along with the underlying belief of enhancing socio-economic condition of our much valued associated weavers through business. It’s a retail outlet situated at Chhaygaon, Kamrup.

Pic: Pictures of the retail outlet inaugurated at Chhaygaon, Kamrup (R)

We at Era Trendz believe that Eri-Silk can also become a fashion drift in today’s era. It is an endeavor to keep this age old tradition alive by commingling it modern clothing trends. It was an important day for Grameen Sahara and GSPCL on 24th April, 2017, when Era Trendz was inaugurated.

Pic: Prastuti Parashar, famous actress as chief guest for inauguration interacting with our secretary, Mr. Sarat Das

Pic: The GSPCL team during inauguration program

We look forward to hear from you all about the initiative and further support. We thanks all of our partners and stake holders for being with us all the time.

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Aunual Report 2015-16.pdf.pdf

Annual report of Grameen Sahara for the year 2015-16

Dear Partners, here we come up with our Annual report of Grameen Sahara for the year 2015-16. It has been an eventful year. We once again want to thank you all for your utmost support and Guidance. 

We wish everyone of you  a very happy and prosperous 2017. Be excited, keep smiling and keep exploring for making changes.

Best Regards.

Grameen Sahara

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Merry Christmas Everyone..!!!

On Behalf of Grameen Sahara Family,Wishing you all the best that life can bring, Merry Christmas to you and a year full of blessings.

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Training on Adult Learning

We would like to convey our gratitude to Dr. Soumitra Dutta, Program Manager  India, Freedom from Hunger Trust, who was our main facilitator for the training program on Adult Learning Principle and Techniques. The training was organized at Center of Excellence, Guwahati on 1st and 2nd December 2016. Dr. Dutta had been associated with Adult Learning as a purpose of delivering health education in women groups. But yes, such principles can be used in livelihood programs also for which both the Golden team, the HR team and the Spice team participated in the program to make the most of its learning received can be applied at our working villages during community meetings or in SHGs. He stressed on two components mainly content and process which are important while conveying any message within an adult group. we must treat adults with utmost respect and listen to them to make any kind of training participatory.

Pic. Dr. Dutta during the training program

He taught us all the 9 principles involved in Adult Learning with illustrative examples to make our concept clear. He also organized 2 demo sessions on how to apply those principles to make the training more effective.

Pic: Demo  session on small group technique to encourage participation from all the participants. 

Pic: Chart work on how to give and receive feedback

It was a good opportunity for us to learn from his experience about Adult Learning also we appreciate the cooperation and support provided by CoE, Guwahati . All the participants were given a certificate from CoE in the end. This will definitely help our facilitators in making the upcoming training programs more effective using RUPA (the compact version of 9 ALPP) at field level.

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Annual Weavers Meet 2016

The Annual meet was organized for weavers on 25th November 2016. It is the time when all the stakeholders from different communities and different locations comes under one platform once a year to celebrate the feeling of  togetherness and to acknowledge the hard work that everybody has put in for sufficing the objectives of Golden Weavers Project.

Pic: Mr. O.P Kotnala, Director, Indian Institute of Handloom Technology delivering his speech during the meet

The occasion was blessed with the presence of some of the key dignitaries from Central Silk Board, Indian Institute of Hand-loom and technology, Weavers Service Center, National Hand-loom Development Council and nevertheless the valuable presence of all those golden weavers.

Pic: Weaver’s Participation during Annual Weaver’s Meet

This was the final annual meet organized by Grameen Sahara as Golden Weavers Project is approaching towards its end in this current phase.The occasion was also marked by The Secretary of Grameen Sahara,Mr. Sarat Chandra Das.

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Partnership with Pakshalika Producers Federation

Pakshalika Producers Federation (PPF) is a community based weaving institution promoted with the support of ICCo by Grameen Sahara. It’s currently operating in Boko Block of Kamrup (R) District in Assam. The field activities of PPF are same as that of GSPCL. For the sustenance of spinners, there emerged the idea of partnership with Grameen Silk Producers Company Limited (GSPCL).  GSPCL being an established entity will help in developing and catering the marketing needs of PPF. 

A resolution has been taken in AGMs of both the institutions that were held on 24th September 2016. 

It was resolved during the AGM that PPF will become a stake holder of GSPCL and the dividend receive by PPF will be distributed among its producers.

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Participants of the training program WEAVE, taking active part in learning the software. In spite of not having sound knowledge in operating computers, their zeal for learning the software was very encouraging. As facilitators, you also feel good about it.

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When tradition meets technology...

While talking about technology, nothing can beat the idea of commingling one’s creative skills with it. Not only merging but also providing a marketing platform where the producer have direct access to market and can sell her products to customers.

Recently, we conducted one training programme on WEAVE which is software based mobile application for design development in fabric weaving. This will act as a platform for weavers to display their designs and also to obtain orders from the customers directly. They will be also able to bid to the prices offered by the buyers. This programme was organized by Grameen Sahara with the support of Tata Trust and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The programme selected 30 numbers of poor woman weavers from neighboring villages in Chhaygaon Block. The training programme was 20 day long and it covers various aspects from usage of desktop computers to using WEAVE software on Tablets. Two trainers form TCS were assigned for this programme. Another part of this training programme was developing weaver’s soft skills. For this two trainers from DBTech were engaged. This training started from 9th June to 2nd July 2016. On successful completion of the training, test was conducted and 16 numbers of weavers have been provided with a Tablet based on their performance.  It was really appreciable to see the enthusiasm of participants. In spite of having low literacy, their active participation for learning the software was commendable.They were also given a certification of merit from Center for Micro-finance and Livelihood (CML).

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one of the progressive weavers working in our weaving center at #Chhaygaon .

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A golden step towards sustenance

Grameen Silk Producer Co. Ltd has evolved as a producer owned institution entirely run by the spinner producer. This is the result of the untiring effort of Grameen Sahara. It started as a project supported by Sir. Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), Mumbai by the name of Golden Weavers’ project, an endeavor since 2007 to organize this sub-sector and poor women spinners into an organized mechanism to support this economic activity with integrated approach in the terms of supply of inputs, technical assistance, technological advancement and market support. Grameen Sahara, from its very inception, has been working to promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor women from rural and semi urban areas through provision of financial services, technical assistance and other required development support services in a holistic manner.

Interventions:

Eri silk activity that is perceived as an unorganized sector. Some of the challenges underlying like low production, lacking quality awareness among spinners, requiring technological up-gradations and little investment from govt. or other parties. We mobilized producers initially by forming producers’ groups which are actually SHGs engaged individually in spinning and weaving activities in four different blocks in Kamrup district of Assam. Here the spinners have been organized in two levels- group level and center level in the operational Areas. These centers are linked to the project office by creating an interface created via a community leader as center manager. The project has a systematic production process where supply of inputs such as cocoon/yarn to producers at their doorstep. A marketing arrangement is set up for the produces through a buy back mechanism from producers. For enhancing the production as well as improving the quality, the project has done technological intervention through introduction of motorized spinning machine. In lieu of that, we have provided 700 machines to the producers. Skill building support as well as quality enhancement training has regularly been provided to producers. The program also focuses in weaving, design development and technology up gradation.

Outcomes:

The project has been able to organize spinners and weavers which has enhanced their skills and linked them to market by arrangement of marketing support. It has covered over 5,000 women spinners and weavers in Kamrup district. There has been substantial enhancement of quality both in silk and fabrics. Income enhancement is not very substantial but time utilization is also less. There has been a notable increase in the house hold income of member beneficiaries of the Golden Weavers’ project.

As stated earlier we are always clear with the fact that Eri spinning can n ever be a primary activity of livelihood. This activity is done on leisurely basis by the female members of the rural household. Hence t his is only a part time activity. But we can consider that income from this activity contributes to the total household income of the family. The m ember beneficiaries who have been associated with the project spin 2.5 kg of Eri yarn in a month. They earn Rs.1, 500/ - Rs.2, 500/- in a month. Now in most cases these women need not have to depend on the daily wage labor as they can earn the same amount of money without going out of their house. The project has turned out to be beneficial for the people affected by river erosion as these people do not have agricultural land…..

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