Women at the Training Center
Aruna Project
The Aruna Project brings and sustains freedom through employment and holistic care for sexually exploited women. As an international athleisure lifestyle brand, it creates functional luxury eco-friendly bags and accessories made by women freed from sex trafficking.Aruna operates a training center in the heart of the red-light district of Mumbai. It establishes relationships with sex workers to help them enter the Aruna training center. There they receive a hot meal, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and financially in centivized work skills to provide employment opportunities and help bring their freedom. Once free, the women can join in transitional housing and Aruna’s Freedom Business, located 20 miles away from the red-light district.
Seamstresses at Work
The 2020 P&G Alumni Foundation grant of $21,000 will contribute to Aruna’s development and implementation of an expanded employment preparatory program at their production site. As a result of the project 150 women will be trained, 34 new jobs will be created, and over 500 family and community members will be positively impacted. The grant will be the second awarded by the Foundation to Aruna. The first in 2016 supported a production capacity increase in Aruna’s Mumbai factory, training 100 women in the process and employing 50 more.
The women served by Aruna have hope and a brighter future. They excel in their professional and personal development. One of the clients stated “Aruna gives an opportunityto those who are denied it and I love that. When I think about the future, I hope… to help others the way I washelped”.