Yeshashri is a highly creative 15-year-old with a flair for fashion. Her mind filled with designs, fabrics, and and her dream of becoming a renowned designer.
Her father, Shrikant, works as a welder on daily wages, and two of her older siblings are working too. The family supports each other, and Yeshashri has been supported by a sponsor through the Goa site since she was seven years.
Yeshashri spends her days in a fashion design training course. Her teachers taught different patterns and designs, but the school doesn’t have enough sewing machines to go around. Yeshashri didn’t have one at home either, and she’d go days without any hands-on practice. Her family couldn’t make their pooled budget stretch to cover a machine — new or used — for her.
“Despite her deep interest, she found herself struggling and feeling discouraged as she tried to learn the skill she loves,” says Sister Jyoti, Goa site director. “She began to worry that without her parents’ support, she might never be able to achieve her dream of becoming a fashion designer.”
Yeshashri remained focused on her training and looked for support elsewhere. She approached the Goa site staff about a sewing machine from the gift catalogue. Knowing the teen’s deep-seated commitment, Sister Jyoti and her team obliged.
The day she received her sewing machine, “Yeshashri was overjoyed beyond words,” Sister Jyoti says. “Now, she spends most of her time honing what she learns at school. Receiving this gift has filled her with immense happiness—she considers it her most treasured possession and a gateway to her future.”
“Thanks for giving me the opportunity to pursue my passion for fashion designing,” Yeshashri says to everyone who supported the gift catalogue. “Your kindness means a world to me.”
Yeshashri can sew whatever she wants, whenever she wants — and ‘whenever’ is all day, every day. She is perfecting her skills rapidly. She sews children’s clothes and makes small mends for neighbours.
“The item is door to her better future,” Sister Jyoti says. “It will enable her to continue earning a living wherever life takes her.”
You can open paths to prosperity for older teens and parents through this year’s gift catalogue. Check out sewing machines, training, tools, vendor carts, Good News Goats and more at chalice.ca/gift-catalogue/.