ONE MOTHER - SEWING LIVES TOGETHER

ONE MOTHER's BOLD IDEA IS TO CREATE THE FOLLOWING PROJECT IN 2009
WOMEN AND MOTHERS JOINING TOGETHER AS ONE MOTHER FOR OUR WORLD'S CHILDREN

If you want to help children living in poverty, empower their mothers.

Our Mission
One Mother is a nonprofit organization that empowers women in developing countries to create sustainable income via fair-trade wages. We then reinvest profits into local, non-governmental women’s health and empowerment programs.

The Need
Imagine this… You’re a mother with no partner.
You have no source of income, so you struggle to feed your children
and yourself.
Your family and friends have ostracized you.
You have no possessions.
And you’re HIV positive.
What will you do?
How will you survive?

For the women who have come to the Tambaram Community
Development Society (TCDS) outside of Chennai, India,
no imagination is necessary. Their husbands have died due
to AIDS-related illnesses. They suffer discrimination,
abandonment, and even violence. Many have lost their homes,
inheritance, and possessions. Few can afford to send their
children to school. The cycle of poverty remains unbroken.

Women now make up nearly 40 percent of HIV cases in
India, where 2.5 million people live with HIV and AIDS.
In Tamil Nadu, the state where TCDS is located, HIV
infection is four to five times higher than most Indian states.
Sound hopeless?
Not to ONE MOTHER.

PROGRAMS
ONE MOTHER Economic Independence Program

ONE MOTHER’S innovative model for empowering
women combines free-market thinking with
great respect for the tradition of the women we
serve. We teach the women of TCDS the traditional
Indian art of Kantha quilting using recycled saris.

The result? Beautiful, one-of-a-kind, handmade quilts.

Then? ONE MOTHER purchases the quilts from the
women at an agreed-upon fair-trade price, sells
them to the public, and reinvests the profits in local
women’s health and empowerment programs.

What will the women do with their proceeds?
Feed their families.
Send their children to school.
Buy medicine.

What will the women do with newfound hope?
The sky’s the limit.