The Women’s Department, under the auspices of Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow, spouse of the Prime Minister, and through funding from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, inaugurated the Women’s Sewing Cooperative at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, September 18 at the Port Loyola Pre-school compound.
The objective of the Women’s Sewing Cooperative is to train and empower thirty women to form and manage a Sewing Cooperative that will generate income for themselves and to provide them with intermediate sewing skills, entrepreneurship skills
and cooperative management skills that will enhance their income generating opportunities. The project will target women who already have basic sewing skills including former employees of Williamson Industries, women who have received sewing training from the Women’s Department, YWCA or other training centers or other women who already have basic sewing skills.
Women who qualify to be part of the cooperative will have a stake in the funds that will be generated and be active in the decisions that the cooperative makes. Members of the cooperative will form their own decision making body and work independent of the Women’s Department once the training is finalized. Members will share the responsibilities of running the cooperative through the division of labor. The Women’s Department will provide intermediate level sewing skills training, sewing machines, a space from which the cooperative will operate and start-up materials. With training, women will be able to produce uniforms for a variety of schools and workplaces, souvenirs for the tourism sector, home décor materials and products for the hotels and medical industries such as bed sheets.
The members of the cooperative will enjoy a higher probability in securing funds that would otherwise be difficult to obtain as individuals, once they register as a cooperative. Working as a cooperative, the women will be able to share knowledge, ideas and resources.
Women interested in learning more about the Women’s Sewing Cooperative can contact the Women’s Department for more information.
(Press Release)
