Jacobs Well
In 1994 Oasis India started Jacobs Well, a tailoring project designed to deliver vocational training to vulnerable women.
Many of these women had backgrounds in prostitution and as a result of the stigma attached to them, they struggled to find good jobs or enrol on decent training courses. The women supported by Jacobs Well today have suffered the effects of poverty in a variety of different ways, for example the lack of formal education, early forced marriages, exploitative labour or domestic abuse.
Jacobs Well equips these vulnerable women and other excluded individuals with the necessary skills to ensure that they can secure a good place in the job market. The training is transferable and flexible in order to facilitate different job options such as running a business from home or working as a sample machinist for a designer.
Parvathi first came to Jacobs Well as a teenager. She had dropped out of school due to the
financial situation of her family and was forced into an early marriage. Despite her lack of formal
education, she was determined to quickly develop sewing skills in the vocational training programme so she could gain employment to support her family.
Eventually Parvathi rose to the position of trainer where she was able to develop her communication and customer relations skills, and pass on her new sewing skills to other young women. With financial support and tutoring from Jacobs Well, Parvathi returned to complete her academic education with flying colours. Parvathi is currently studying Fashion Design and is on her way to becoming the first Jacobs Well in-house designer. Parvathi is now educated, financially independent and able to send her children to school.
In India alone more than 600 women like Parvathi have been trained in tailoring skills since Jacobs Well began. As part of Jacobs Well, Oasis is also delivering vocational training in Uganda and Zimbabwe. Vocational skills now include tailoring, screen printing and jewellery making. Alongside the training, the young women (and some men) have received life skills and literacy training in addition to basic healthcare.