INTEGRATED PROGRAM FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT & EMPLOYMENT GENERATION

SANITARY NAPKIN TRAINING & PRODUCTION CENTRE

Due to socio-economic and cultural barriers and limited accessibility to reproductive services in the rural areas of Barak Valley, the poor women and girls face a lot of challenges in meeting their reproductive health needs. Experiencing severe health problems due to unhygienic practices including use of unhygienic cloths and other materials during menstruation is common among the rural poor across the valley. The poor women and girls cannot afford to use quality sanitary napkins available in the market.
In view of this situation, WODWICHEE has established a Training and Production Centre for low cost sanitary napkins. This effort has been found to be very effective in both improving the menstrual practices among the poor girls and women and opening up an economic window for the successful trainees of the centre. During the year under report a batch of 10 women have been provided training and out of them 6 have already started their own units producing and selling the low cost sanitary napkins.

ARECA NUT PLATE MAKING TRAINING AND PRODUCTION CENTRE

Leaf of areca tree is a hard material, slow in biodegradation and has low calorific value. About 1000 million leaf sheath is available annually in India.Areca-nut leaf sheath plates can be used in many occasions such as marriages, religions and social functions for serving food stuffs. It can also be used by local vendors for selling food items, restaurants, hotels etc. These plates can replace the non-degradable plates made by plastics and the like. The laborious craft can be converted into a machine operation to make containers and plates in elegant shapes and sizes. These have good dimensional stability and are inexpensive, hygienic and biodegradable. WODWICHEE running a Training and Production Center for making Arecanut Plates at Lakshirbond, Hailakandi. A batch of 10 women have been trained during 2022-23.