Enactus-KIIT members have come out with a women empowerment project incorporating the concept to utilise waste materials. Their innovative approach was utilising jeans, one of the most used garments, to make bags,wallets, pouches and laptop covers, etc.
Embedding the concept of social sustainability with entrepreneurship, the project entitled ‘Re-jeans 2.0’ with slogan “Your Jeans, Goes Green” not only shows innovation in recycling and entrepreneurship attitude, but also helps empowering women by making them well-equipped with stitching, designing, communication skills, computer training to provide them financial support.
launched in December 2013, the products prepared by the beneficiaries are presently available in the KIIT campus for sale and will be soon found in the local shops and online portals. The sales will take place through a website and payment will be directed to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries created for the purpose.
The effort of Enactus-KIIT members has got rewarded as retail sector major Wal-Mart has granted Rs20,000 as sponsorship to complete the endeavor under WWEEP or Wal-Mart Women’s Economic Empowerment project that sponsorers women empowerment projects by providing entrepreneurial and workforce skills through Enactus teams.
This partnership is a unique opportunity to galvanise Enactus teams to enable 25 beneficiaries to contribute to their family’s financial success that includes 10 girls from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, 10 girls from the Sri Harsha Memorial School for Deaf in Kananvihar and 5 other persons.
Enactus team in KIIT campus led by Kaushal Potdar and Sabyasachi Das along with faculty members and alumni is dedicated not only to create business ideas and exploring scopes for entrepreneurship, but to go beyond the horizon to create projects for social upliftment to create sustainable livelihood opportunities.
“The main target behind the project is to help in empowering women by giving them introduction to entrepreneurship, training in matters of raw material procurement, design, manufacture, branding and marketing”, informs ‘Re-Jeans 2.0’ project leader Snehil Shukla.
Apart from this training, Enactus also aims to provide them a digital platform to market their products, the basic know-how of managing finances and updates about the trends in the sector which would help them in boosting confidence to increase their standard of living and making them independent.