|
An all-volunteer organization, Eternal Threads takes no profit
from the sale of the totes. Profits are returned to India and
distributed by a charitable trust to fund the education of village
girls.
More than 120 girls, including 60 from areas
recently devastated by the tsunami, are now receiving an education
as a result of this project.
Girls in this area of India are
especially at risk for child labor, early marriage (as young
as age 12) or even prostitution*. They are often sent as servants
to work in rice fields, fish farms and factories.
With insufficient income and with deep debts
to pay, families may sell their daughters into slavery. Sending
a child to school can avoid such circumstances and help break
the cycle of poverty.
*Nearly half the prostitutes in Delhi come from
rural villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the area of India
in which Eternal Threads works.
|
|
"80 percent of our Eternal Threads girls would be in child
labor without the school funding." Johnson Medidi, Eternal
Threads India program director.
|
