The Shop with Two Corners

Sasmita has rushed back from the weekly women’s prayer meeting to meet us. She opens her tiny storefront with a flourish and beams a bright smile. “This is my shop!” she announces proudly. “It has two corners.”

In other words, the shop is split in two, with a hand-painted sign in between.

On one side is a “five & dime” of sorts. Measuring about 10 by 5 feet, it displays a colorful assortment of packaged snacks and shampoos dangling from the low ceiling. Stuffed in shelves and piled on the counter are instant noodles, cookies, spices, bubble gum, bottled water, pens, paper, and other essentials.

On the other side is Sasmita’s tailor shop, which, like the store, is open to the street. Outfitted with a treadle sewing machine, a cover stitch machine, and a work table, the space is barely big enough for us to turn around in, but the shopkeeper herself seems perfectly comfortable.

After offering us cold drinks from the mini fridge, Sasmita leans on the well-worn glass cabinet facing the street and chats with us.

“I always wanted my own tailor shop,” she says. “When I was given the chance to join the sewing classes at Console Mission, I thanked God because I knew my dream was going to come true.”

Excelling in both the basic and advanced tailoring courses, Sasmita was sent for a short training in small business management skills. Upon completion, she received a gift from the Dr. Dick Harding Charity Fund for Nepal — a brand new sewing machine, with all the trappings! And thus her tailor shop began, squeezed in right next to her tiny store.

“Business is good,” she tells us, pointing to completed outfits hanging on the wall, waiting to be picked up. She shows off sari blouses and children’s clothes she’s made as well. Sasmita sews to order, which involves taking measurements and drafting her own patterns. She also makes alterations and repairs to ready-made clothing. Her earnings cover the cost of the rented room next door where she and her husband and daughter live.

“I am very happy now,” says the smiling seamstress.

And so is her husband. The additional income brought by the tailor shop has made it possible for him to attend seminary. “That was his dream,” Sasmita says. “So now, with my two-cornered shop, our two dreams have come true.”

Console Mission, a long-time partner of DDHCFN, continues to work in the areas of women & children’s education and skill training, aiming to provide healthy livelihoods thereby protecting from potential abuse or trafficking.