The Karuna Women's Sewing Project has two streams, a Multicultural Mothers Sewing Group on Thursdays and a Multicultural Youth Group on Saturdays. All run from a committee member's garage.

All participants are from the Myanmar refugee community in Wyndham City and come from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Karen, Karenni, Chin, Rakhine, Mon, Shan, and Bamar.

The project is currently funded by Karuna's committee donations and run by Karuna's volunteers. It was started as an opportunity to support women and young girls from the diverse and often divided Myanmar refugee community.

Educational projects taught by Karunas registered volunteers include classes and workshops in sewing and textiles, English language, adult literacy and computing.

Each week, the groups meet to share their common interest in textile arts, including sewing, knitting, crochet, tailoring, clothing alterations and preservation of traditional weaving.

The project provides the women and girls with a creative space to learn new skills and share stories and their unique cultural skills and knowledge in woven products such as bags, shirts, sarongs, scarves, and dresses in a safe and welcoming environment.

We strive to build an inclusive and supportive community where vulnerable girls and women are safe, have access to education and training, are empowered to participate in their communities and preserve their traditional cultural practices.

The project aims to drive social and economic change through networking and sharing the unique skills and art of Myanmar refugees with local businesses and individuals. Women and girls play a crucial role in rebuilding and strengthening communities, which is why we are investing in their future.

Please see the links below to Karuna's Facebook and the sewing group's recent SBS Karen story.

https://www.facebook.com/Karuna-Compassion-in-Action-104882785552884

တၢ်ဆးစဲးစုသ့တၢ်မၤလိလၢကညီပိာ်မုၣ်သ့ၣ်တဖၣ်အဂီၢ် (sbs.com.au)