{"id":216412,"date":"2023-09-18T11:27:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T16:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/?p=216412"},"modified":"2024-07-24T14:28:48","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:28:48","slug":"priya-designs-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/\/priya-designs-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Priya Designs Her Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”]\n\t\t\t[et_pb_row admin_label=”row”]\n\t\t\t\t[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]\n
Priya was eleven years old when her father died. He had worked a modest job, and while his income had not been substantial, it supported a family of four living in Chennai, India. Priya\u2019s mother stayed home while Priya and her younger brother, Gopi, attended school. After their father\u2019s death, they couldn\u2019t afford rent and moved to a small cement-walled room in the slums without a toilet or water access. Priya and Gopi dropped out of school, and Priya and her mother found work as housekeepers, each earning a dollar or two a day. They relied on free meals, served twice weekly at the temple, or leftover food from an employer. Most often, they filled their stomachs with tea to survive the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the most traumatic time of my life,\u201d<\/strong> Priya said. The childhood she knew, though it hadn\u2019t been lavish, was stripped away almost overnight.<\/p>\n And when it seemed life couldn\u2019t possibly get more challenging, Priya\u2019s family suffered another setback. A flood struck South India, completely submerging their home and destroying the last of their possessions. The family was displaced, along with nearly 2 million other Indians, and moved for a month to temporary housing in a government school.<\/p>\n When they returned, the economy struggled to recover. It became difficult for Priya and her mother to find housekeeping work. The government was offering seamstress training, so Priya enrolled. Her mother had introduced her daughter to sewing at an early age, and Priya had maintained an interest. By the time she finished the training, she dreamed of becoming a dress designer and opening her own business, but she needed capital and supplies to get started. She had neither.<\/p>\n Priya\u2019s life changed in July 2016 when she learned about Zoe Empowers. \u201cI had never heard of an organization helping orphaned children reach their dreams,\u201d<\/strong> Priya said. And since she thought about her dream of becoming a dress designer often, she knew she had to discover what Zoe Empowers was all about. She joined the \u201cHard Work\u201d empowerment group a few days later.<\/p>\n After the group formed, Zoe Empowers staff conducted entrepreneurship training and guided Priya and the other children in developing a business plan. From there, vocational training was arranged, and business grants were dispensed. Since Priya had already completed the training to become a seamstress, she could use her grant to purchase a sewing machine and begin working immediately. Neighbors and friends were her first customers, but demand increased once word spread about her talent. Eventually, she opened a shop in the market. With her profits, Priya and Gopi could pay their own school fees. She saved enough to move her family out of the slums and into a new home with adequate toilet facilities and space to plant a vegetable garden. Zoe also helped Priya obtain government health insurance and national identity cards for her family.<\/p>\n