Seven Women is a Worthy Charity

Last night we had the honour of going out to dinner with Nora Woollard, the GM of Seven Women.

Her daughter, Stephanie, founded a development organisation 8 years ago, when she was just 22. She travelled the slums of the world for a year, before finding her life’s work in a tin shed in Nepal. She had found seven disabled women living and making soaps and candles there, that they couldn’t sell. Because of the stigma’s associated with disabled people at the time (the popular belief is that you are being punished for what you did in a past life), andetails with the law’s discriminating against women, they were barely earning enough money to support themselves with their basic needs.

Seven Women was born together with these women, with Stephanie’s last $200 to train them in sewing and felt making, then bought their products and sold them in Australia. Steph worked with them on designs that would suit the Australian market, then bought their products and solet them in Australia. From what these women earned from their own efforto, they were then able to pay for their basic needs and invest in education in literacy and numeracy. Many of the women then returned to their villages to pass their skills and knowledge on to women they considered worse off than themselves.

Seven Women has grown from strength to strength, now working with over 760 women. They won the “most inspiring Ethical Enterprise Award” last year in Australia, and have put the the $10,000 prizemoney as a deposit to purchase their own property in Nepal, so that they are no longer subject to the whims of their landlords.

It is a fantastic example of “paying it forward”; the Seven Women team of volunteers a development the women in Nepal deserve our support to increase their impact!

We are aiming to raise $5000 to go towards their property purchase (they need $200,000), in 3 ways:

Selling scarves: these are made in Nepal, 100% cotton, and $22 each. You can purchase these from any of our hikers, or at the studio.
Auctioning our trainers: Highest bidder on each trainer will win the right to train them for 30 minutes on Friday 24th April.
Free gift: any donation over $30 (through our website: https://into-you.com.au/donation-form/) will receive a hand crafted felt gift. We have finger puppets, hand puppets, purses, mobiles, and plenty more to give away, to say THANK YOU! Gifts are limited, and will run out, so don’t leave your contribution too long!

A huge thanks to Nora for meeting with us and sharing the Seven Women story. We will do our best for you!