Vocational Tailoring Program Giving a Brighter Future

Tailoring classes are an opportunity for girls to learn skills above those of the daily schoolwork. These classes run at the Seng Girls Vocational Training School for 45 minutes, 6 times per week. These girls work very hard and are very excited to learn these tailoring skills. During the coldest months of the year (December – February) the temperatures drop to -40C. This made the oil in the sewing machines freeze and so the girls were not able to sew. They were all very excited for the warmer weather when they could get back to their tailoring.

‘My name is Chong Dock. I’m 17 years old and study in the grade two this past semester. I want to make nice clothes and open my own clothes store when I grow up. The biggest problem I met when I first learned the sewing is that I couldn’t make straight stitch. It took me for a while to master it. Right now I am confident that I can learn sewing well. After I graduate from high school I hope I can learn further skill of sewing. There was an old sewing machine in my home, I had been always wondering how to use it, today I get that, thank you my sponsor for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I’m able to master this skill.’

‘My name is Jicmed Lhamo. I’m 15 years old and study in grade two this past semester. I like dressing myself nicely and have big interests of making my own clothes. After a couple of classes I found out that actually it is more difficult to learn tailoring than I thought before, especially when I try to sew the collar and sleeve together with the main part of the cloth. Sometimes the machine doesn’t work well. I asked my teacher to help fix that, he is great. You can see this pink t-shirt which is the best one I’ve ever made, I like it so much.’

Our thanks to the families and individuals who sponsor these girls, and to the Fung (1906) Foundation for establishing and sponsoring this tailoring program at the SGVTS. This is giving these girls the opportunity to broaden their horizons and give them a brighter future to look forward to.   

Picture – (left photo) Chong Dock sewing (right photo) Jicmed Llamo showing off her favorite t-shirt
For more information about this project or to find out how you could partner with Captivating to bring lasting change to families in remote rural locations, contact andrewc@captivating.org.