Until recently, Angoori Devi could not support her family. In her village in rural India, it is typically not accepted that women leave their homes for work, so Angoori’s family depended on her husband’s small income as a mason laborer. Without the money to keep her daughter Sunita in school, Angoori accepted that she would have to marry her off early.
Then, Angoori signed up for livelihood training through her local READ Center, where women were trained to make cloth bags at home to sell them to a major retailer through the center. With the money Angoori has earned, she has delayed Sunita’s marriage to allow her to finish school. Today, Angoori and both of her daughters are sewing bags and have joined a literacy program at the READ Center.
