Labels are Liabilities

Stick a label saying 'lazy and unreliable' on a group of refugees and asylum seekers and that is what a group with hidden potential are likely to become.

Sanjukta Sharma was given the task of helping ethnic minorities, so she did her research, decided on a group, and was told that her work was destined to fail because those refugees and asylum seekers were lazy and unreliable.

She thought otherwise, and with a small grant from a private foundation, she embarked on the journey of Arts n Enterprise for Women (AnEW).

Sanju chose to work with a group of 15 women from CA's Chung King Mansions Service Centre for refugees and asylum seekers. She taught them to make jewelry from woven beads, first bracelets, then later necklaces and earrings. During the second phase of this project, the women learnt to paint, create their own designs, and make prints. Most importantly Sanju taught them small business principles. She wanted to ensure that the goods they produced were of such high quality that they could be sold in the marketplace. The return on sales helped recoup many of the expenses not covered by the original grant which only covered transport and raw materials.

Sanju began to see emotional and behavioral changes in the women. They began to interact with each other and respond to her. They had all suffered some form of trauma, which had forced them to seek asylum. But the faith of another woman and the creativity she awakened within them led not only to healing but also empowerment.

One of Sanju's greatest rewards has been in seeing the angry, pain filled eyes of those women begin to shine with hope, then joy, and finally satisfaction at being able to regain their dignity.

Their gratitude became evident when Sanju arrived at St. Andrew's Church for class one day to find the women dressed to the nines. They had discovered she was celebrating a birthday so they presented her with two birthday cakes which they had purchased with their own money!

Sanju's final stage of teaching focused on preparing the women to move to their destination countries to begin their new lives. She ensured they could take skills with them which would enable them to run a business of their own.

A year after they were labeled lazy and unreliable, those energized women graduated with a certificate and a small grant.