Presentation
Mahatma Gandhi used to say that “Buy 1 meter of cloth and 10 persons are able to live”. Today, is it still true and for how long?
THE BEGINNING
In 1966, Manangaty, a 18 years old, cured leprosy man, amputated of one leg, is placed by Volontariat at Vellore’s Hospital to receive an artificial leg. Back to Pondicherry, an easy solution exists for him: to return to the leprosy of Dubraypeth, called “Lazaret”, where, like him, 150 men and women are “gone white” (illness stopped), but are disabled and rejected by their families and the society. The Indian Government would take full charge of him, with just one concern: begging to buy his daily alcohol and forget his condition. Are you sure that anyone of us would do the same if placed in these conditions?
Manangaty refuses this issue, chooses to work, accepts the Volontariat’s offer to learn the job of weaver. At the seaside close to the “Lazaret”, the photo shows the first small workshop, in a hut made of “casurina” and bamboo wood,
with a thatched roof with coconut tree leaves. Sivapragassame, a former weaver who got this sickness, is the “mestry” for Manangaty and a group of handicapped men who try the adventure to leave their pitiful, but easy, life for a dignity recovered through their weaving work.
This workshop, which was called later Atelier Shanti, is considered as the first rehabilitation centre of South India for handicapped cured leprosy people. The wooden weaving looms with pedals are manufactured and maintained locally; the rough cotton yarn, first quality, is bought from the market; the processes of “atchee”, “pavou”, warping, sizing, starching of the yarn are realized by the A. Shanti workers. The dyeing process only is made at the nearby suburb of Muthialpet.
With the first pieces of cotton cloth, “lungis”, loincloths for men, dish towels, etc, are made and sold locally. But due to the competition of handloom, produced by non-handicapped people, Volontariat decides in 1966 to sell the products in Europe, fabrics for curtains and table clothes.
Several hundred pieces of cotton, with shining colors, are produced every year and other sections manufacture made-ups (tablecloths, bags, embroidered items, etc).
The majority of the production is exported and sold by the Volontariat European supporting committees, as well as few organisms specialized on fair trade.
ATELIER SHANTI TODAY
The workshop is divided in 3 sections: weaving, sewing, embroidery, plus people for the staff, maintenance and security. On total, 57 are at work on 1st September 2011.
Weaving section: most of them are handicapped, are working in the different stages of the weaving process: those who prepare the big and small bobbins, workers preparing the chain (“Atchie”), those in charge of the sizing and warping, those specialized on “Pavou” (organizing the yarn of the chain), those who apply starch and lastly weavers who make rolls (fabrics) about 19 m of length and 1m50 of width.
Sewing section: the women use power sewing machines to manufacture the items, ordered by the customers through a catalogue (bags, aprons, table clot, etc), which is revised every year.
Embroidery section: many of the women who are employed in this section are physically handicapped. They manufacture made-ups and embroidered table cloths ordered by our customers.
Most of the production is exported to the committees in France and Belgium which place orders. The finished products are packed and
shipped to their final destination, through the application of the normal commercial rules. The workers of Atelier Shanti are very proud to export the fruit of their work whereas they are still physically and socially handicapped.
A large panel of the production is proposed for a local sale in the small show-room Navin, located at Sakti Vihar, the customers mainly are the visitors of Volontariat.
We need many people who continue to buy our fabrics or made-ups, bags, tablecloth, etc, in the different committees showrooms in France and Belgium, to give to the women and men of Atelier Shanti the right to live with dignity, thanks to their work and not to our charity.
