On the morning of March 21, 2024, our team was on our way to visit a newly-graduated student from the Husky Energy Tailoring (HET) Skills Program for Women. Instead, we met an old friend. A person who made HET a successful project as it stands today—Gabu!
Prior to meeting him, we have only been recently seeing Gabu from his local television appearances, as a true local personality of his caliber. But who is Gabu, you ask? Gabu was one of our tailoring instructors in the project and we are pleased to hear from him after a long time. When we spotted him, he was headed home and graciously invited us there to catch up. It is not every day that we encounter Gabu, so we set aside our initial agenda and went to his place to catch up.
When we entered his humble abode, prominent frames and trophies from various awards and certificates decorated his walls, showing true competence from his 40 years of dedication to his craft. Since 2018, HET has been reaching remote pastoral areas in Qinghai Province, and we were in search of highly competent individuals to help us. From 2019-2023, Gabu has been tapped to teach our beneficiaries this valuable lifelong skill, and he happily took the role. He did not only teach his students the technicalities of sewing, but he also helped them appreciate, if not love, the craft as he did.
True enough, it takes a truly successful person to inspire others. During his time, 80% of his students had mastered the skills he had taught them—many of those opening their own shops to sustainably make a living. For the others who had not made it out successfully, he empathetically mentioned how those women tried their best but had to answer to other challenges in their lives at that time.
Gabu fondly reminisced his memories with students from each of his HET Sewing Project classes. He mentioned how he is still in touch with his students, as he continuously provided them guidance even after their graduation—if this isn’t pure dedication to passion, we don’t know what is! He has seen the women earn sustainable incomes due to the skills he imparted, and that is one unquantifiable success that humans can achieve in their lifetime. Looking back at those memories made him realize how much he enjoyed teaching and wishes to do more of it—What great news!
We wrapped up our conversation in high vibrations. As we bid farewell to Gabu and his family, our team was truly inspired by the spirit this man possesses. Gabu is a truly special person whom we have had the honor to work with in the past and in the future.
Gabu when he was teaching at HET
This program is fully funded by Husky Energy
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