Collaborative Workshops

Since May 2007, VIDYA has been facilitating Practical Skills Training Self-Sustainability Workshops with Jan Shikshan Sansthan (Gujarat University) across the slums of Ahmedabad. The goal of these workshops is to provide women and girls of the slums communities with practical training and skills in the safety of their own community so they can become financially independent and self-sustainable. In May and June, VIDYA conducted a candle-making and mukhwaas making workshop because the demand for candles and mukhwaas are constant throughout the year and especially during the holidays and wedding seasons.

Since July, VIDYA has been facilitating a four-month workshop teaching sewing to women and young girls. The ability to sew is a very important and useful skill that women can carry with them irrespective of location. The demand for clothes is universal and the need is constant - women can make their own clothes and/or make them for the market, helping women earn an income and save money.

In July 2007, VIDYA conducted a Women's Empowerment Result-Oriented Workshop for Chaitanya Charitable Trust in Jamnagar, Gujarat with 30 local women aged 18 to 90. The women were only aware of folk songs at the beginning of the workshop but by the end they had learned about self-development, awareness, sustainability and empowerment through Theatre and Theatre-techniques. They also performed small role-plays on issues they were encountering in their respective communities. Creative games, exercises, debates, theme-based discussions, etc. were used to make the women aware of their movements, personal aggression, conflicts and how to resolve issues and face their aggression through dialogue and Theatre. The participants learned how to create dialogues, self-help groups, about self-sustainability, banking, saving concepts, how to raise their voices and express themselves.

Between October and December 2004, Vidya participated in a series of workshops in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Kerala (Trivandrum and Trichur) organised by Prof. Ralph Yarrow, University of East Anglia, UK with support from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board.

 VIDYA was presented as a model of successful practice to other organisations and individuals working in the field of Theatre and Development in different regions of India. The workshops provided a platform to share information, ideas, skills and future plans. And discuss needs and problems, and possible ways of addressing them. So that a network can be formed to exchange resources. A large number of groups from across the country (as well as Bangladesh) attended these events. This was a great opportunity for VIDYA to showcase their methodology and interact with others doing similar work in different contexts.