A Stitch in Time

A Stitch in Time is a campaign dedicated to empowering and celebrating the next generation of women who have been recently impacted by climate change and COVID-19 by creating and providing them livelihood opportunities, as we strive to build sustainable products, business solutions and communities. 

THE PROBLEM

The world is just waking up to the need for sustainable products, business solutions and communities globally.

• Developed World : In 2017, Americans spent more than $12.7 billion on gift wrap. Most of the gift wrapping paper cannot be recycled. About 333 million square feet of trash - equivalent to 5,700 football fields of gift wrapping paper is collected every year, which is not sustainable. A Stitch in Time is a campaign with a focus to save time, money and natural resources by using sustainable, reusable fabric gift wrap.   

• Developing World : 1.1 billion people globally still lack access to electricity; millions more receive unreliable and inadequate supplies. Fossil fuels—coal, kerosene oil, diesel and natural gas— negatively impact public health, wildlife and habitat loss, water and land use, and global warming emissions leading to long-standing effects on local communities and ecosystems, and the overall global climate.

• Village of Amoor : The district of Trichy was once predominantly driven by agriculture and now due to global warming and climate change, the rivers have dried and the local families that once relied on farming, struggle to make their ends meet. As many men moved to nearby cities to find jobs, the domestic responsibilities including education of their children completely fell on women. They also had no voice in the family’s decisions-making as they were economically dependent. Overall the villages were evolving as unequal, unsustainable communities. A Stitch in Time gives women from such backgrounds a voice against this backdrop.

HOW WE'RE GIVING A VOICE TO WOMEN IMPACTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

Over the last 3 years, through innovative collaboration with the women impacted by climate change from Amoor, a village in rural Trichy in South India, Orora has been able to provide a platform for local women to learn new skills in solar engineering and provide employment opportunities  for women with regular well-paying jobs. Our center in Amoor has been a safe and inclusive space for local women to advance their professional and personal lives and foster connection between one another within their own community.

Orora has been successful in setting up Orora Solar PowerHubs for solar technician training, solar product productions, garment manufacturing and more that has helped provide employment opportunities for local women and youth in clean energy and in manufacturing, reducing the cost of solar installation, making renewable energy accessible and affordable for rural communities, which will also soon benefit from significant energy cost savings over time.

Here is an example of the Orora PowerHub set up in a manufacturing unit in Trichy in India. Our innovation is our product, the Orora Solar PowerHub, basically a plug-and-play 3 KiloWatt solar solution that can be installed in any community center in a village where there is a need for access to reliable access to electricity. A 3 kilowatts solution for garment manufacturing provides power for 12-16 hours a day and a backup of four hours and can support 10 sewing machines, provide employment for 20 women and reduce the GHG emissions by 1.8 metric tons of CO2. The PowerHub can operate in a solar only mode or in the hybrid mode which consists of solar energy and electricity, when the weather doesn't cooperate. Previously before installation of the hub, diesel was used during long power cuts leading to 20 hour work days to meet deadlines. Now, the Orora PowerHub helps achieve triple bottom line sustainability increasing the manufacturing productivity and profit by 10x and reducing the carbon emissions by 15x. In partnership with a US based startup Rapt, Orora has now been able to create manufacturing opportunities for women in the garment industry to produce sustainable and reusable fabric gift wrap (Rapt) which can wrap gifts and goods using the art of Furoshiki.

WHY WE ARE CROWDFUNDING

To further our mission to empower women in developing countries who have been impacted by climate change, we are now raising  funds to produce the first batch of 25,000 Rapt giftwrap packages at the Orora Solar Powered Garment Manufacturing PowerHub setup in the village of Amoor. Raising funds here will help go a long way in helping meet our overall goals of providing employment opportunities and financial sustainability to the 250 women working at Orora Solar PowerHubs . With your help, we can keep up with nurturing and funding our growing community of women. This is only the beginning. We have aspirations to go global!  Your support will go towards the following:

1. Rental of Orora Solar PowerHub venue
2. Scaling up fabric gift wrap production to 25,000 Rapt fabric gift wraps
3. Hire and train full time garment workers and hub coordinators for a year
4. Ship Rapt to our supporters

MEET OUR TEAM

Cindy, Monica and Savitha met through the WIN Growth Lab at Babson College during the Fall of  2020. As a partnership, we have found our passion for sustainability, different styles and backgrounds blended very well.

• Savitha Sridharan is a Indian who moved to the US to pursue her higher education in computer engineering and business. She is passionate about bringing more opportunities to women and youth in the clean energy industry, creating gender equity. She holds an MBA from F.W.Olin School of Business (Babson College), Master of Science from North Carolina State University, and Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. She brings with her passion, a decade of experience in technological innovation and hands-on experience in social work in India to implementation of Orora. During her free time, she trained for ultramarathons to fundraise for developmental work in rural India.
• Monica O’Neil is a New England transplant with a youth spent in Chile, Venezuela and Morocco. Fluent in 3 languages with a Master’s in French Literature, Monica spent a decade teaching at several area high schools. Becoming a mother was a natural evolution - there is a lot of overlap in the skill set. Monica is still trying to educate but the subject is a little more straightforward - reducing waste - and there’s a lot less homework.
• Cindy Estes , a California native who married New England started seam, a children’s clothing line, with 4 children in tow. As a young graduate, Cindy became the first in-house graphic designer at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and worked with various artists and curators to create a consistent brand strategy. With a background in design and experience in clothing manufacturing, she brings her sense of style, design and implementation to Rapt.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING US REACH OUR GOAL

You can buy or gift a Rapt to contribute to our campaign to help us reach our goal. We have also put together a set of rewards you will receive for supporting our campaign! We also encourage you to help us spread the word by sharing our campaign to family and friends! You can share it on social media, email, or word of mouth!  

Finally, we want to sincerely thank you for your support in expanding our sustainability initiatives in empowering next generation of women who have been recently impacted by climate change by creating and providing them livelihood opportunities. Your contributions will directly impact our efforts to give them an authentic voice,  provide empowering skills and resources, and cultivate strong bonds among each other as we build sustainable communities. 

We wish you A Wonderful Holiday Season and A Happy, Sustainable & Resilient New Year 2021 from Orora & Rapt family!