Alamb in Uttam Nagar, West Delhi, is one of the projects that Vibha supports in India.
Alamb was established in 1992 with the main aim to help people, especially women and children of socio-economically weaker sections of the society, be aware of their rights to education, well-being and self-respect. Vibha has been funding Alamb’s girl child education and vocational training programs since the year 2003.
Alamb runs tailoring, embroidery, beautician and computer courses in its vocational training programs to help girls from slums support their families.
Some success stories from Alamb:
Narrated here is a story from Tailoring Course, one of the courses covered at Alamb. This course is covered in a 6-months period. Government certification will be given to all the girls enrolled in the program. These girls have already started stitching their own clothes, saving at least Rs. 120/suit. They also take up small tasks from other tailors, such as hemming, stitching saree falls and most work that requires hand stitching.
Madhu is the instructor for the Tailoring course for the past two years. She used to be a student in Alamb’s tailoring course and joined Alamb on completion of her course. Madhu comes from a family, which lives below poverty line. On completion of her course from Alamb, she set up a tailoring shop at home and earns about Rs.3000 a month in addition to her salary from Alamb. When asked about her experiences, Madhu replied with a great satisfaction; “I am happy as I don’t have to worry about finding money for my small personal needs, like medicine and other things. I also have started small savings. I am glad that Alamb started this program for us as we have very little opportunity to go out and seek work.”
Over the years, Alamb has been able to make a big difference to the lives of many young people in the community. It has equipped these youth with skills which will hold them in good stead wherever they may be. At least 700 such youth have improved their economic status or have been motivated to continue higher education along with the assurance of having learnt a skill which will help mitigate financial constraints.
Vibha’s support to Alamb and to other partners is based on the premise that financial support is important but more important is our ability and capacity to help the organization grow – through broadening concepts and horizons, helping them with strategic visioning and planning and creating environments for them to scale and increase their outreach.