A tailor-made solution

East-West Education (EWE) is a Sussex-based charity that sells ethnic dressing up clothes and dolls' clothes. The costumes are representative of different regions in Asia, Africa and China. Director, Daya Durai, and her fellow parishioners at a Sussex church have had a long-term collaboration with Oasis India, which promotes education and vocational training for disadvantaged young people living in Bangalore. Daya Durai's family originates from this area and she is a frequent visitor there. It occurred to her that the tailoring trainees, mostly young women from a nearby slum who have had limited education, could, after a year's training, make ethnic costumes for export to Britain where they are in so much demand in nurseries, playgroups and schools. They began with three Indian costumes in 2000 and became a registered charity the following year. EWE sponsors the trainees and employs them in the sewing workshop where they earn money to help support their families. The women gain experience in the workshop for two years before moving on to make room for the next trainees. However, with the new skills learned, they have a better chance of finding a job. EWE also supports other disadvantaged groups in a similar way. It orders wooden hangers and clothing labels from a boys' training facility, and kurta pyjamas, made at a school and training centre in Orissa for the deprived daughters of prostitutes, convicts and unmarried mothers.