12 Days Of Freedom With Freeset

I am so excited to introduce you to a wonderful organization called Freeset. I recently learned about this ministry through a fellow blogger Kristi who is a full time advocate for Freeset. I had never heard of the devasating statistics of the sex trade taking place in Calcutta, India.  There are thousands of women trapped in this lifestyle.

What is Freeset? Freeset is an amazing organization that gives women a chance to escape from their life of human trafficking and employs them. At Freeset women are taken off the streets and taught to sew beautiful tote bags. This not only gives the women a new life but also gives them their dignity back.  It doesn’t stop there!  Freeset also teaches the women to read and write, and provides daycare for their children while they work.  It really is a beautiful story to see.

If you can, please take the time to watch this six minute video about Freeset and hear from the women themselves. It is a powerful story!

 Now Meet Ajanta

Ajanta grew up in a red light area – her mother was in the sex trade. This meant that as Ajanta reached puberty she was very vulnerable to the men prowling the area. She managed to stay at school longer than many girls in her situation but what she would do when she finished school was by no means certain. As the daughter of a sex worker her prospects were somewhat limited. “I heard about Freeset from my neighbors” she recalls, “So I talked to my Mom about contacting Freeset for a job”.

“I was very excited to be offered a job at Freeset” she says, but being young and fresh out of school Ajanta had no sewing experience and she had never previously had a job. “I was scared dealing with new people in a work environment” she remembers, “but slowly I became attached to Freeset and developed the feeling of being a part of the Freeset family. When I was first asked to sit at a machine I had no confidence at all – I was afraid of even placing my feet on the pedals!”

However, she enjoyed the training a lot and today – 6 years later – she is an excellent seamstress, full of confidence. So much so, that Ajanta was transferred from sewing bags to the Tees unit which requires a much higher level of skill.

Instead of a life tainted by the sex trade, Ajanta’s time at Freeset helped bring hope and to improve her prospects. She has been able to marry into a respectable family. She knows just how necessary Freeset is in this community; “All the women still in trade need to be free.”

Here is the good news! We can purchase the lovely tote bags sewn by the women at Freeset! They are a nice quality and so affordable. They would make perfect Christmas presents, and the more we can spread the word and purchase these reasonable bags, the more women can be freed from this devastating lifestyle.

Freeset is located in Calcutta, India, helping to free women from human trafficking by providing them employment with dignity through sewing bags. Every woman is provided medical insurance, retirement, daycare for their children, classes to learn how to read and write, and three times the wage they would receive “in line.” Join us every day December 1-12 in Freeset’s Freedom Tour of 12 Days of Freedom with Freeset and become a part of the freedom story. Watch our video, shop our bags, change lives.

 

Click on the bag below to see the full selection of totes available through Freeset.

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