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As spring heads into summer, we are delighted to celebrate the graduation of twelve ladies on May 3rd.  There are now over eighty women walking in freedom at Sari Bari!  Speaking of graduation, there are new Sari Bari items available for your favorite graduate (or whomever else you love) in an eBay auction as well as at saribari.com.  Don’t forget, the auction ends this Saturday! (See previous blogpost for details)

Check out the latest shipment at our website.  Our newest product, the baby changing mat, is sure to be a favorite.  In addition, original sari blankets, baby blankets, pillow covers, and table runners have been re-stocked.  Finally, there is one gorgeousfreedom quilt available now.

To keep up-to-date on Sari Bari news in between e-mails, join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter .

Sari Bari wants to invite you to participate in its first ever auction.  Sari Bari is auctioning two unique king size blankets 92×108. Each blanket is made up of the parts of more than 20 saris.  Each section of the blanket is stitched with the corresponding thread color and each patch is artistically applied to bring out the beauty of the over all piece

These Special Auction King Size Bed blankets are artistic tapestries of color.  They have been specially designed for this auction and will not be available for sale on the Sari Bari website.  Our Sari Bari Artisans Laxmi and Pornima gave many extra hours to the stitching and detailing of these wonderfully large pieces of Art.  These blankets are symbols of restoration and hope for Pornima and Laxmi and through their labors the long-term vision for freedom through Sari Bari is pressed forward and the opportunity for the freedom of more women grows!

We hope you will celebrate with us the artistic nature of the work that we do at Sari Bari.  We are in the business freedom, of making the old new, bringing forth beauty and restoring wholeness to that which has been cast off.

The funds from the Auction will be used by Sari Bari toward the purchase of 2 new desktop computers, a printer/scanner,  a server and 2 sewing machines.  We hope that we will be able to raise all or part of the funds needed to purchase these items which are needed to expand our capacity and efficiency.

We hope you like the blankets and throw your hat into the ring for the first ever Sari Bari Auction!  The two blankets will vary slightly in patch placement and patch color but the photo’s give a clear representation of the blanket and color scheme.

Go to the following links to place your bids:

King Size Blanket #1

King Size Blanket #2

Sari Bari Auction King Size Blankets (Download the slide show for best viewing!)

A Reflection by Beth

Last week,  the woman who normally comes to clean the floors for the day at Sari Bari and make the morning and afternoon tea didn’t come to work.  I arrived, opening the office at 9, at ten minutes past, I realized I would be sweeping and mopping for the morning. Half way through I was drenched, as it’s now in the 100’s each day.  I was hot, sweaty, irritated.  But as the rest of our Sari Bari women showed up to work, each one rushed to find a cloth for mopping, bottles to fill with drinking water, the toilet scrubber was even fought over…and I passed one women smiling as she descended down the stairs disposing of a large bucket’s worth of yesterday’s trash…when I said to her, “you don’t have to do that” she shrugged me off, saying “ what is it to me, we’re all the same, I can do this work”…

And it was at that moment that I realized what great beauty exists in our midst at Sari Bari.  No work is too menial or dirty, they live it, they believe it.  They changed my perspective, by the simple act of helping me, picking up a rag and kneeling down beside me to get the necessary morning work done.  These women are my heroes and my sisters, teaching me and reminding me of the power of humility and service at it’s finest, even in my moments of irritation I continue to learn from these beautiful sisters in my midst.

We had a someone volunteering at Sari Bari for a month. She was a great help in some admin work – and a beautiful set of spare hands…willing to do whatever was asked of her. And while she didn’t speak any Bangla – she had such a beautiful spirit…she had lunch with the ladies every day – and slowly, despite the language barrier the ladies have embraced her.On her last day volunteering with us, I took her around to the different rooms and told the ladies that she was leaving – going back to America. and then I translated their good-byes, their requests that she come again, and that they’ll miss her. some of the ladies were really sad to see her go. There were tears. And as I watched my friends grieve over someone leaving – I was reminded of what a sacred trust it is to be invited into their lives. They have welcomed me into the Sari Bari family. They have opened their hearts to me. We laugh, and joke. We share lunch. I just kept thinking over and over what an honor it is to know the women at Sari Bari. It is humbling. To be known and loved – to be welcomed and embraced…for them to open their hearts to knowing me, and being known by me – it’s sacred. This beautiful treasure that has been entrusted to my care. A gift that I do not deserve. A trust that has value beyond words. In so many ways I can’t fully understand the gift that I have been given. The relationships at Sari Bari are sacred – that’s the only word that I can come up with that begins to do justice…

Reflection by Melissa

Sometimes it’s the little things…that you see – that you notice…and they make you think, and they bring you joy…or wonder…

…i watched my friend packing up to leave SB the other day. She carefully folded the blanket she was working on. She fixed her sari. She worked pretty hard to try and clean all the little pieces of string off her sari (I usually just leave with little strings hanging off my clothes in whatever why they decided to attach themselves to me). And then she looked at the clock and had 5 minutes left until she was supposed to leave. So she started getting thread ready for the next day, so when she came in the next day she’d be ready to start sewing. She was working so diligently – not wasting any time. I can’t say why I thought this was so beautiful – I just did…maybe because she was working so hard. Maybe because she didn’t want to cut corners. Maybe because there was a sense of pride about her every action – a sense of pride that she hasn’t always had in regards to her work. regardless, it was beautiful.

…one of my friends makes “chutney” at lunch almost every day. You or I would call it salsa. She mixes tomato, chili and cilantro – and eats it with her rice. But don’t be confused…its NOT salsa. You see, she uses equal parts chili and tomato (so when she offers it to me I can only eat a little cause its so spicy) – and she uses her hand to squish the chili and tomato, and mix in the salt and cilantro. No knife necessary. For some reason I love to watch her make it.

…today I went into one of the offices before it was open. Only the morning manager was in – and while I picked up the stuff I needed to collect she stopped and we chatted for a bit. I told her that seeing her smile and the way she carries herself gives me joy. Her life and her love of the women at Sari Bari in a word is breathtaking.

reflection by Beth Waterman

Sari Bari celebrations are a normal practice for us here in Kolkata. Maybe it is a reaction to the intensity of suffering we see and experience through our friends here, maybe we just like to have a good time, most definitely we’ve chosen to declare goodness and value and joy in the face of what are often desperate hopeless, dire situations. Sari Bari is choosing to push through darkness, and live in a new way…flowers in the cracks of cement walkways, trees in a concrete jungle, hope and celebration in the face of abandonment and oppression.

Our Sari Bari 5 year anniversary retreat to the mountains was no exception. Our gift to one another was three days of fresh mountain air and 59 bundled up ladies with their new Christmas shawls, clothes, and socks soaking up every moment…for them this was a trip of relaxation. Most of them were able to leave their children at home for these few days, which meant their responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, and family maintenance were left in Kolkata as well. Gangtok was a breath of fresh air for our sisters who daily work so hard to support and care for their families.

For me the most beautiful moments of our time together in the mountains happened our last night together, a birthday celebration to mark 5 years of Freedom for Sari Bari. Listening to Sarah recount our humble beginnings and celebrate the two women who paved the way for the 70 others who have followed left me in tears and full of thankfulness that I get to be a part of this journey. As each Sari Bari training group stood to be recognized and applauded, 5 years of memories flooded and bled into one big mosaic of our time together. All we’ve been through, all we’ve suffered and celebrated and learned along the way. To have the opportunity of knowing such courageous and heroic women is my honor and great joy. Stories unthinkable fill our Sari Bari walls, but restoration and hope is overcoming even the most tragic of lives among our friends. As staff member Kyle Scott sang to our ladies in one of his most recent songs “[their] will to live, taught me to hope”…

And thus is my final reflection on our time together in Gangtok, celebrations of 5 years worth of courage and hope, through the mediums of eating, snow capped mountains and crisp air, beautiful birthday cakes and lots of Bollywood dancing. We spent three days together with sisters who have shown us there is something more powerful than the oppression they’ve experienced.

Here’s to another 5 years of new life in the making.

I am not a mother,  I have no children of my own. I am not even married.  I am a graying single woman who is surrounded by more family, more sisters, and more children then I could have ever dreamed.

I have been given the gift of coming from a beautiful family that raised me well, cherished me, called me smart, a princess, a woman of compassion, my parents told me I could do anything, be anything.  I believed them.  And this family that I was born into loved me enough to let me go.  They sent me here to India, they are sharing me and upholding me.   And here I am bewildered and amazed by the gift of more family.

I see women come through the doors of Sari Bari and find something they have been longing for, a safe place, a community, a family.  We are a unique family, heavy on the x chromosome but thankfully cherish the few who carry the y chromosome ( they redeem the whole lot with their presence and because of who they are among us).  We are a family that mourns the losses in our midst, a family of hope addicted crazy dreamers who believe that impossible is possible, a family that spends most of its time just being together, working alongside each other, supporting, listening and moving forward one step at a time.

today, we celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Sari Bari and they many beautiful, amazing women who are the core of our family.  I may being graying but I am so not alone and so very thankful to celebrate our life together this week as we travel to a hill station (a short 8 hour train ride and 5 hour jeep ride away) to mark this moment in time, to remember all that has happened and to look foward with Hope to a future whose seeds have been planted but have yet to bloom.