My time in India with Sari Bari

This past January, Kevin and I had the privilege of flying to Kolkata, India to spend a week with Sari Bari.  You can see more pics of our time in India and Nepal here. 

From my heart I can tell you that Sari Bari is one of the most beautiful organizations i've ever seen. For many reasons, I was and am, greatly inspired by their work and mission.

Sari Bari employs women who were once involved in the sex trade in Kokata, India. They also employ a unit of women who have never been in the trade, but are vulnerable to it and are working at Sari Bari as a way of prevention (Most of the time their mom was in the trade and they get a job at Sari Bari as a way to avoid entering.).  I interviewed my friend Natalie who used to work at Sari Bari, and thought it would be helpful for you to further understand how the organization works:

Are the women trafficked or do they enter the trade on their own accord? 
Some were trafficked. Poverty choose the trade for some. We never say they chose to enter the trade.

Are most of the women coming out of prostitution on their own accord?
All of the women have to have the freedom to walk through the door of Sari Bari, so they have either paid off their debt or were rescued or phased out of the fully owned brothel system.

What happens when you hire a woman? 
The women first receive six months of training that helps them transition out of the trade. The first three months the women go to the trainings for half days where they learn how to sew. The next three months the women start training full days taking classes on writing, math, play therapy and mental health.

And once they go through the training, then they officially start work at sari bari?
Once they finish six months of training, they are full fledged Sari Bari employees with all the benefits of health care, school benefit plan, provident retirement plan.

How does the pay work??
Women are paid in two ways. The ladies who hand sew are paid a daily salary + per piece. Managers, support staff and machine ladies are paid salary. 

Now...a little more on my time in Kolkata... 

My time with Sari Bari was very unique. I worked 4 very full days, and each day was at a different site around Kolkata. I did both shots of the women making the products, as well as product shots around the city. Kevin was by my side the whole time, helping me get the shots I needed, and generally just being useful around the offices. He tied the tags that go on the bags, and helped fold and do whatever odd jobs were available. It was a gift to serve alongside him. 

The women were so gracious to welcome me into their space. I laughed a lot with them, hugged them, held their hands, and just watch in absolute awe as they made the most gorgeous products. Truly, these blankets and bags are a labor of love from skilled hands. Every time I wrap my Sari Bari blanket around me, I am reminded of their beautiful smiles and most importantly, of empowerment. 

These women have a skill, they have a craft. They are given knowledge and empowerment through their training programs, teaching them how to budget their money. Each morning begins with prayer and worship in the offices, and so much light just pours in. I have a very vivid memory of watching the ladies praise God. 

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that Sari Bari inspires me. 

First, it inspires me because someone saw a need and met it. 10 years ago  a group of people got together and recognized the specific need for more alternative job opportunities for women in the red light district of Kolkata. For 10 years they have given their life to making this business work. This is no small task, to run a non-profit in a country that has all sorts of red tape and can at times move slowly. They gave their lives to meeting this need, and I was able to witness the beautiful fruit of it. 

Sari Bari inspires me because I saw well over 100 women working in clean and caring conditions, doing something they love, and making a good wage in a fair way. Women who's lives have changed. I am inspired to know that when we purchase a product, we are using our money for kingdom purposes. 

Sari Bari bears witness to the fact that God's light can be found in dark places of this world. 

If you are interested in Sari Bari, please check out their website here! 

 


 {on one of the days we did a product shoot, most of our models got sick, so I jumped in and Kevin kindly snapped some pics of their amazing products. But truly, these blankets are so cozy to wrap up in!}

Our European Christmas Trip

I am almost done going through and editing all our pictures from our European Christmas trip. It's been fun reminiscing on each city we visited and how they decorated and celebrated the holidays.

I have also gotten a massive case of the giggles more than once looking at myself in this red hat above. I literally wore this hat almost the entire trip, and today just started to refer to myself as a cotton headed ninny muggins (Thanks Elf!!).  The term just fit so well with my little red hat, ha!

So, stay tuned next week as I start posting pics of our trip. If you've ever thought about going to Europe during Christmas, or even just in the winter season, i'll be sure to include all the tips we picked up along the way. I'll be linking the amazing Air BnB's and apartments we stayed in, as well as the yuletide activities we participated in:) I hope it will be helpful for you!!

On the home front here, we are getting more settled into our house each day. We've been able to walk EVERYWHERE, which is basically the biggest blessing ever. We've walked to church, to friend's houses, to my basketball games, to bible study. I feel like Rory from Gilmore girls, it's great. Now I just need to find a Luke's Diner (that serves gluten and dairy free, haha!).

Hope your Wednesday is amazing:) This Friday i'll be sharing more about Sari Bari, and my time in India capturing their story. Looking forward to showing you the gorgeous products from this amazing organization!!

When things are not what they seem...

A few months ago I observed a picture of a good friend of mine on FB where she was having a grand ol' time with a specific group of people in her life. I thought to myself, "wow, life just seems so wonderful for her. She just seems to get along with these specific people so well". And then I reflected on my own personal issues and how I had trouble relating to these same set of specific people in my own life, and wondered why I wasn't as skilled as my friend in this area.  

A few days later, I talked with this friend on the phone. And what she actually shared about those pictures shocked me. Evidently she recently had a major falling out with one of the people in the picture and was working on repairing that relationship. Nor was she proud of the way she acted. 

I had a good laugh with her on this, as I shared my own troubles in this department, and we both talked about how deceiving pictures can be on social media. How the viewer can assume so much. 

And then, a few days later this happened again with a different friend. 

Totally different circumstance, but same result. 

When I actually talked to this person privately, I found out that things were actually quite difficult for her in this moment. And we laughed, because I had experienced some of the same difficulties. 

And then the roles were reversed last week. I met up with an amazing older woman from my church for coffee. She asked me to share my story, and for about 45 minutes I gave her many intimate details of my sufferings, my joys, and my walk with Christ. When I finished detailing my life, she stared at me wide-eyed and told me she was surprised. She had observed me from afar for a few years, and had assumed that I was so put-together, so carefree, that I had experienced little in the way of suffering. She literally told me she would have never guessed that I had experienced so many struggles in my life.  

It's always interesting to hear what kind of impressions people have about you. In some ways it was nice to hear that I appeared to be put-together (when so often I feel like i'm hanging on by a thread), but in other ways it made me realize that I want people to know how feeble, how sensitive, and how "in-the-trenches" I am with those in pain. Pain and brokenness are not foreign to me. 

And so I guess I write this all to say a few things. 

First, we truly never know what people are going through. 

We must be kind and respectful, no matter what. 

We must love, even when people annoy or hurt us, because we truly have no idea what is going on in their soul. 

We must care. 

We must ask, and share our stories. 

And we must enter in, if that is what the other needs. 

Second, social media can trick us into assuming that everyone else has it all together, and make us feel as though we are a failure. I don't blame anyone one bit for sharing the positive things in their life. It's so wonderful to celebrate those joys.  It's essentially what I do here on this blog. 

And to be honest, I don't think social media is always the right avenue to expose the hard things in our lives. If i'm hurting, i'm going to reach out to the real people in my real life, and probably not write a lot about it  on the internet. I don't ever want my blog to be a place where I share specifics on people who have hurt me or rant about the negative things happening to me. I just don't always think that's appropriate. Which I why, I suppose, for the most part, I post happy and uplifting pictures here on my blog. But please be aware that while this blog tends to be very positive and chipper, my life isn't always such. And while I may not always post about the hard things, I do struggle, have days when anxiety flares, don't have perfect relationships with everyone I know, nor manage to have it all together. 

But that is why we must be so careful with social media. Pictures are only half the story. There is always so much more going on we do not see. If you find yourself comparing your hard bits of life, to other's highlights, then I might challenge you to consider a break from social media:) Just a thought!! 

I hope this is encouraging to you today. Each one of us has joys and pain, and we should never compare that to others. Instead, we should engage with one another and work to support each other in our current seasons. Meet up with your friends, ask them hard questions about their life, seek to pray for them intentionally, and just care. Write a card,  bring a meal over to someone, sneak a gift into their room, send a text. 

We all could use more caring and kindness and less comparing and assuming, right?  

Please know I love to pray for you dear reader:) I am never too busy to pray, so send me an email:) 

Happy Monday,