(Links to donate and shop are below.)
SEEMA
SOCIAL ENDEAVOR TO ELEVATE MAHILA AWARENESS
Profile
SEEMA was founded in 2002 by Jenny and Roy Ramble, founders of Raj Ministries, India/Nepal.
SEEMA is registered as SEEMA SANSTHAN SOCIETY in 2007 but work among abused and village women had already begun in 2002.
SEEMA operates from a main office in Rupaidhia, a small village in the India-Nepal border, and has a branch in a nearby village. Rupaidiha (125 km from Lucknow, the nearest city) lies between the Indian Check and the Nepal Check post. This places us in a unique position to reach out to the women of India as well as Nepal. It is a 250-meter walk from SEEMA to the Nepal border.
The SEEMA branch is just 4 miles from our Main Office. God placed this village on our hearts as the women here suffer extreme domestic violence. Easy access to marijuana has left most men as addicts. Besides this most of them have never experienced the love of Christ. Responding to this painful need and persuaded by the promise SEEMA offers hapless women, a local family offered us their land to build a small room for SEEMA in the village. We were moved and excited by their burden, generosity, and vision. And thankful to God for this most unexpected provision.
SEEMA Beginnings: SEEMA grew out of the pain and potential of an abandoned young mother of two who came to the office for help in 2002. This beautiful Hindu woman in her late twenties and her two tiny girls stood were destitute. The mother had been thrown out of their home because she could not provide her husband a son. We feared for her and her future. Poor and illiterate, she had no means of income and no skills. Soon we discovered, she knew how to weave. With just a few stakes of wood in the ground and some thread and she showed us how she could weave. And that is how SEEMA began. We have never looked back.
SEEMA today (before lockdown) has evolved from a simple, 2-3 member roof-top project making plastic rope bags to a streamlined, multi-process operation employing up to 46 women. With a special unit for hand-dyeing threads. All processes are hand-operated. SEEMA’s expanding portfolio of products is all hand-made from hand-dyed cotton thread at our facilities. SEEMA is committed to helping poor, abused widows and at-risk girls and women from nearby villages in India and Nepal. Working in SEEMA gives the ladies a new lease of life. For eight hours every day, they are free from being abused, free from domestic violence. They find joy and camaraderie working and singing together, sharing food, and carrying each other’s burdens. They often confide that once they get home there is no smile, no laughter, no joy. So many lives have been touched over the years. The impact of lockdown on SEEMA: We were driven to shutdown. SEEMA had no sales, no income. Our women were without work, leaving families hungry and desperate. Thanks to a recent small order, we can now afford 10 ladies a slot of 15 days work. This is nowhere near the 46 abused women we were helping before. There is an opportunity for more centers but finances and funds are low.
RANI – A SEEMA STORY Rani (queen) lives in poverty and pain. Her late husband, a victim of marijuana addiction, died from Oral Cancer, leaving this young widow with five children, the youngest just 2 years. And nothing else. No home, no finances, no skills, and no relatives who could help. Till she joined our SEEMA family. For over a year SEEMA has helped educate Rani’s children and build her a small home. But the pandemic changed everything as SEEMA operations ground to a complete standstill. With the SEEMA workshop closed, Rani had no income. And 5 children to feed. She was easy pickings for villagers waiting to exploit vulnerable women. She even suffered and attempted to rape – the man bribed to cover up his crime. She was clearly in danger. If we turned her away, the village ‘vultures’ would get her. Sales or no sales, SEEMA would employ Rani so she could feed her children and be safe from exploitation. It is a struggle to pay her wages and we are looking for any help or contributions towards saving women like her in these difficult days.
Please, if you can, donate or purchase a beautiful bag to support women like Rani. Links to donate and shop are below.
*To donate, scroll down to the bottom of the SEEMA USA home page.