How Avaada Foundation is supporting women and girls to learn earn and lead
Avaada Foundation believes that when a woman gains knowledge, skills and confidence, the change reaches her family and the wider community. Across project locations, the Foundation is creating practical opportunities for women and girls to learn, earn and build independent futures.
Building livelihood skills
Through Avaada Navkiran Stitching Centres, Avaada Foundation is providing basic and advanced stitching training to around 5,000 women and girls. The centres use traditional, electric and industrial machines to help participants learn garment making, designer wear, bags, mats, potlis and other marketable products. The Foundation is supporting the training with 40 industrial sewing machines, along with tailor-model machines, so that women can turn their learning into home-based enterprises and sustainable livelihoods.
The training is growing with local demand. Women are learning crochet, beauty and makeup, knitting, diya making, jute products and other vocational skills. They receive certification, market linkages and opportunities to showcase their products at corporate events, fairs and local markets. In Jayapur, the knitting centre is supporting more than 75 women, many of whom are earning independently and strengthening their families’ incomes.
From learning to earning
Avaada Foundation is supporting women beyond a single training course. Women are working as teachers, computer and stitching trainers, centre managers, field staff and community mobilisers. They are becoming role models for girls who are beginning to see work, learning and leadership as part of their own future. In collaboration with a telecom partner, homemakers are also receiving opportunities to work from home with minimal training.
At Avaada Community Development Centres, women and girls are joining computer learning, digital literacy, tuition and skill-development programmes. Around 60 per cent of enrolment at these centres is female. Married women and homemakers are returning to learning, improving their digital skills and preparing for better livelihood opportunities.
Supporting girls to continue learning
Women’s empowerment begins early. Avaada Foundation is strengthening quality education for girls through Government School Renovation and Upgradation, safe drinking-water facilities, gender-segregated toilets, school bags, learning materials, bicycles and school buses. These interventions help build a holistic learning ecosystem and encourage girls to continue their education with confidence. More than 60 per cent of scholarship beneficiaries are girls.
In Badnu, Rajasthan, the Foundation is also supporting Under-17 and Under-19 girls’ cricket teams with travel, nutrition, kits, shoes, practice support, logistics and study material. Their journey from village grounds to state and national platforms is showing other girls that their ambitions deserve space and support.
Health dignity and stronger households
The Foundation is strengthening women’s dignity through menstrual hygiene and self-defence workshops, sanitary and washable sanitary pads, and sanitary-napkin vending machines in schools. Kitchen gardening, agricultural training, exposure visits, quality seeds, practical guidance and veterinary camps are also helping women contribute to nutrition, household income and rural livelihoods.
For Avaada Foundation, women’s empowerment is not limited to teaching a skill. It is about creating the confidence, tools and opportunities that help a woman stand on her own feet, earn with dignity and inspire the generation that follows.
