Breaking Norms
Work environments are often based on how to get the most efficiency or productivity. Usually, production follows a fairly linear process from concept, prototype to finished product. Traditional work follows a 9 to 5 pattern and maybe no children are allowed in the workplace. The whole process is largely based on the importance of a certain level of output.
At Ohrna, a goal that is of paramount importance to us is to provide rural women an opportunity to earn by working at their convenience, from their homes. These women come from situations where there are several barriers that limit their opportunities. These include not just financial limitations and restrictions on workplace, work timings and type of work but also social barriers of going outside the home for work. And of course, the need to balance domestic responsibilities of the household and the family before they can consider working outside.
Since our partners are the women of rural India, a work environment that places limitations on time and place was definitely not going to work for us. We had to push the rules of the rule book, change the way we perceive “work” and rethink our process.
Rather than a person’s life being carved around their work life, we look at the work our artisans do as one part of their life, and we believe in giving them the ability to control how it fits in with the other pieces.
Salma, an artisan from Hubli, brought her son to one of our workshops because she couldn’t leave him at home alone. He only had scraps of cloth, newspaper pieces and chalk to play with throughout the day as she worked on her new mat design and he was still just as full of glee at the end of the day as he was at start!
Understanding the needs of our makers has allowed us to make our products not just better, but also more meaningful to them. This is just one of many stories.
Ohrna provides it’s artisans a Maker’s Kit so they can work from home at a time convenient to them. There are women who work at the farm all day and then embroider for Ohrna, or another woman who is saving up all the money she earns for her daughter's marriage, and another who is able to contribute to the family income and send their son to boarding school.
They already have a life, roles, and we stand here as a support system that waters the plants of their lives.
These are stories of real women that show us that empowerment is not just about earning money or about formal literacy, but about what happens along the way.
Work environments are often based on how to get the most efficiency or productivity. Usually, production follows a fairly linear process from concept, prototype to finished product. Traditional work follows a 9 to 5 pattern and maybe no children are allowed in the workplace. The whole process is largely based on the importance of a certain level of output.
At Ohrna, a goal that is of paramount importance to us is to provide rural women an opportunity to earn by working at their convenience, from their homes. These women come from situations where there are several barriers that limit their opportunities. These include not just financial limitations and restrictions on workplace, work timings and type of work but also social barriers of going outside the home for work. And of course, the need to balance domestic responsibilities of the household and the family before they can consider working outside.
Since our partners are the women of rural India, a work environment that places limitations on time and place was definitely not going to work for us. We had to push the rules of the rule book, change the way we perceive “work” and rethink our process.
Rather than a person’s life being carved around their work life, we look at the work our artisans do as one part of their life, and we believe in giving them the ability to control how it fits in with the other pieces.
Salma, an artisan from Hubli, brought her son to one of our workshops because she couldn’t leave him at home alone. He only had scraps of cloth, newspaper pieces and chalk to play with throughout the day as she worked on her new mat design and he was still just as full of glee at the end of the day as he was at start!
Understanding the needs of our makers has allowed us to make our products not just better, but also more meaningful to them. This is just one of many stories.
Ohrna provides it’s artisans a Maker’s Kit so they can work from home at a time convenient to them. There are women who work at the farm all day and then embroider for Ohrna, or another woman who is saving up all the money she earns for her daughter's marriage, and another who is able to contribute to the family income and send their son to boarding school.
They already have a life, roles, and we stand here as a support system that waters the plants of their lives.
Ohrna provides it’s artisans a Maker’s Kit so they can work from home at a time convenient to them. There are women who work at the farm all day and then embroider for Ohrna, or another woman who is saving up all the money she earns for her daughter's marriage, and another who is able to contribute to the family income and send their son to boarding school.
They already have a life, roles, and we stand here as a support system that waters the plants of their lives.
These are stories of real women that show us that empowerment is not just about earning money or about formal literacy, but about what happens along the way.
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