Benglish Crafts

Benglish Craft is a part of Vialisa Foundation, developed to create independent job opportunities for students participating in Vialisa’s programmes. On request of the participating students, Vialisa opened its tailoring training in 2006. A year later, this training was complemented by an embroidery training. Over the years, these programmes have trained over a hundred underprivileged youths. By now, several parents have bought their own sewing machines. This way, our graduated students take home orders from family or community members and contribute to their family income. Several graduated students have been sent to work to garment factories by their family. To prevents graduated students from turning into each other’s competitors as independent tailors, or being sent to work to garment factories, in 2013 Vialisa started to transform its vocational training from tailoring into handicrafts. Bangladesh hosts several NGOs that create handicrafts as part of their income generation programme. Their target groups thus become employees of these NGOs, which, while providing job opportunities, at the same time creates dependence on those particular NGO. Vialisa aims to train its target group, underprivileged youths, to get a sustainable job, which will be economically independent from Vialisa. Therefore, we have searched for a way in which handicrafts will be a tool to achieve economic independence, instead of a target. We have found the answer in creating a social enterprise, Benglish Crafts, in which underprivileged youths will be trained to run all facets of a handicraft enterprise. By continuously developing handicrafts, more job opportunities will be created and more social enterprises will emerge.