COMING SOON
A story from Kolkata, India where women in poverty have reconstructed their lives by involving themselves in a fair trade business, ConneXions. ConneXions is a wonderful place whose mission is to create meaningful work for extremely impoverished women. This work primarily focuses on the textile industry because this is what these women can do. ConneXions then exports these textiles to various western nations and sell them under a free-trade label, and the impact of this free trade can be seen in the lives of these women. The primary work here is stitching together used saris, the traditional womens garment. They sew together these elaborate pieces and create various types of items to sell from baby slings, skirts, shoulder bags, blankets, etc.
In September 2009, Amanda was privileged to recieve a scholarship that sent her to live on the third floor of ConneXions where she collected footage. She spent time learning the culture, making friends with the women (who later called her "sister"), and experienced what it's like to live in a slum community. Stay tuned Fall 2010 for a short-documentary piece.
