The stench is nauseous, the heat unbearable and winding alleys, difficult to navigate.
I am unable to keep pace with Maryanne. She is leading me to anuLife, an organisation of women creating extraordinary products from cardboard cartons, cement sacks and rice bags. Just two minutes away from the space and peals of laughter reach me.
Sophia, Mathamma, Jamuna, Mahalakshmi, Asha, Lalita, Manjula, Kamala, Gowramma are at work. Spread out over two rooms, in between skilfully fashioning out baskets from cardboard cartons, the women also find time to crack a joke or two.
In the shelves are stacked more baskets, shopping bags, sling bags, door mats, mobile covers, clutches, laptop bags, all made out of recycled packing.
anuLife came into being in 2010 when Tineke Otter, a Dutch lady living in Whitefield, set out to do something for slum children. She got in touch with Christ University which was already working in the slums of Janakiram Layout in Banaswadi. And together, Christ university, its NGO arm CSA and Tineke set up anuLife. A designer from National Institute of Design, Devika Krishnan came on board to teach women how to make products out of recycled objects.
Tineke got anuLife in contact with several other expats, mostly Dutch women who became its volunteers helping anuLife with sales. Tineke returned to her native country. And soon after, anuLife attempted to function independently. “The whole thing collapsed within six months. I had a slight idea about this as Tineke was my neighbour in Whitefield. So, I came on board. I knew a few Dutch ladies through Tineke so I wrote to them asking to help with sales," says Chinmayi Subhash. Taking up the role of the mentor of anuLife, the first thing she did was to get the outfit registered as a trust.
As of now there are 11 women who are working at anuLife. They earn anywhere between Rs.2000-Rs.8000 depending upon the size and the number of products made. The process starts from procuring 300 kgs of waste cartons every month from NGO Parivartan, followed by washing, drying and cutting. “Washing is the most difficult part. The cartons with dried food particles inside begin to smell. So, sometimes they throw up while washing,” says Maryanne, coordinator, anuLife.
After that it is a cakewalk for trained hands like theirs. “There are no targets but we try and finish two bags every day. We can take some work home also and bring our children here. So the work environment is good,” says Sophia, one of the oldest employees with a smile. Sophia is the only breadwinner of the family. Her husband refuses to go to work. “All of them have similar stories. Their husbands are alcoholics so they have taken charge of their lives. Most of them work as maids in the morning and come after finishing their work,” says Chinmayi.
Chinmayi goes on to add that frequent visits by foreigner volunteers and Blue Foot tours and travels bringing in tourists, they are comfortable in interacting with anyone. “That is why you have Mahalakshmi and Sophia speaking a smattering of English.”
Mathamma, who has speaking and hearing problems, has developed better communication skills after coming here.
Sales happen through network of volunteers but they are just sufficient to pay renumeration to 11 workers. “One German expat, Elizabeth, buys stuff from us in bulk and gives us about Rs.30,000 every month. We get small order from Belgium and the Netherlands, US. We somehow manage and fortunately, we have never had to delay their salaries," says Chinmayi, who is now looking for an organisation to take over. Shifting her base to Pune, she wants to ensure anuLife is in able hands. "Because products are unique and our workers have a lot of potential."
(For more details write to contactanulife@gmail.com)
