BAHRAIN’S largest expatriate group for women has adopted two eco-friendly initiatives that are on the United Nations list of best practices during the pandemic.
The Indian Ladies Association (ILA) aims to use the schemes to raise funds for Sneha, a centre for special children in Bahrain.
‘Shayya’ and ‘CoVeed’, two green projects launched by Indian Lakshmi Menon during the Covid-19 pandemic, have won international acclaim.
‘Shayya’ (Sanskrit for mattress) involves making use of discarded Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and other scrap by turning them into eco-friendly and sustainable mattresses, while ‘CoVeed’ project makes use of specially crafted paper houses to donate provisions to the needy.
Ms Menon, founder of Kerala-based ‘Pure Living’ is a designer by profession.
Women at ILA will adopt her ‘Shayya’ method to make sofa-backs and table runners which will be put up for sale – with funds raised to be used for Sneha.
“Children at our Sneha centre will also be encouraged to build tiny ‘CoVeed’ paper houses from the templates provided by Pure Living as part of our assisted art work,” ILA president Reena Sreedhar told the GDN.
“The children can fill them with pulses and grains and donate it to the needy.
“ILA also intends to use tailoring scraps for sofa-backs, table runners and other products of the kind, inspired by Shayya project.
“These items made by women will be put up for sale as a means of raising funds for Sneha, along with our current Diwali diya project.”
ILA announced these decisions as they hosted Ms Menon at a webinar titled “Design thinking for Pure living”. Monika Srivastava, ILA patron and wife of Indian Ambassador Piyush Srivastava, addressed participants of the webinar, facilitated by ILA general secretary Trupti Sudeep. Host for the day was former ILA general secretary Mariam George.
“These projects are about eliminating plastic of any kind by reusing them,” Ms Menon told the GDN.
“CoVeed is a crafty project and it can be taken up by specially-abled children, who can create customised gift boxes for festive seasons and celebrations.
“Each box will have a beautiful story to tell and it is an opportunity to equip people with a skill.
“Whereas, with Shayya it need not be only PPEs, it can be any fabric, even undergarments washed and sanitised can be knotted into a mattress.
“Value-added projects that could be created from this are prayer, yoga or game mats for families, or even chair backs – you can be creative.”
ILA is also adopting yet another initiative of Ms Menon, the “Chekutty” doll project – small dolls with a smiling face made from damaged clothes.
Children at Sneha will be encouraged to build rag dolls which would be available for sale, according to Ms Sreedhar.
Ms Menon crafted the dolls to help revive flood-struck weavers of Kerala’s Chendamangalam handloom in 2018 and the doll had become a symbol of hope.
Her other projects are Rolapen, a pen with a plantable seed; water bulbs light in Bhopal; Heartbeat of Handloom and Karuna Dolls – all projects under the banner of ‘pure living’ which stands for ‘Products Upcycled, Recycled and Economised’.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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