Shanlin Mothers Use Sunlight Fabric Bags to Build a Loving Sewing Workshop and Local Brand
After Typhoon Morakot, many families lost their homes and moved into the permanent housing at the Tzu Chi Great Love Park in Shanlin District, Kaohsiung City. Jobs were scarce in the park, and the young and able-bodied who had lost their farmland were forced to work elsewhere, leaving women and the elderly behind in the permanent housing; the whole park lacked youthful vitality. But a group of mothers, though from different ethnic groups such as indigenous, Hakka and Minnan, came together to found the "Great Love Sewing Workshop", supporting and encouraging one another, not only to make a living but also hoping to build brand awareness through innovative design and create job opportunities.
Jian Yinfang, who currently serves as project manager at the Great Love Sewing Workshop, said the workshop was initially assisted by the Tzu Chi Foundation, and a company in Tainan donated more than twenty second-hand sewing machines to provide vocational training for the women in the park. These mothers had no sewing experience at all in the past; after vocational training, the fledgling sewing workshop began by taking on traditional home-based subcontracting work.
A Little More Effort, A Little More Reward
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