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It’s a familiar face for August’s employee of the month certificate!  Sumitra was previously given the award for May this year, and you can read more about her background and beginnings with jacobs well in our blog post from that time.

Every member of our team is equally eligible for this monthly certificate and we look forward to celebrating and encouraging everyone in their time.  But while there was a lot of hard work completed all around this month, it was impossible not to recognise Sumi’s awesome achievements once again.

With our master tailor Ayub leaving for a new job in the Gulf, he has been giving Sumitra intensive training to take over his work in creating samples and tackling the most complex stitching jobs.  Sumitra has risen to the challenge fantastically!  She has already been stitching a delicate couture item for one of our long-term clients and it is great to see her confidence grow in leaps and bounds alongside her achievements.  Our goal here at jacobs well is not just to offer a job, but to provide an environment where staff members continue to learn new skills and really develop their passions and interests.  Sumi is so valuable to us and we are excited to see her thrive.

Congratulations Sumitra!

Photo taken by Lydia on our new office camera… stay tuned for more shots from the team!

Sweet-natured Kamakshi is a quiet one, often to be found reading in a corner at break times or otherwise minding her own business.  But she definitely doesn’t escape our notice and we are really happy to award her the jacobs well employee of the month certificate for July 2013!

After completing a tailoring course through the Oasis ‘Learning and Livelihoods’ programme, Kamakshi first joined the jacobs well unit in Bangalore in 2010.  Though she stayed with us for some time, Kamakshi found the stitching work very difficult at this point and took some time out to explore other opportunities.  We were pleased to welcome her back in 2012, and since then she has been ironing, running shopping errands, helping with buttonholes, overlocking and cutting work as well as checking and packing final items before they are dispatched to clients.

Kamakshi has recently become interested in working on the sewing machines and is really taking initiative and responsibility for her own learning.  We’re excited to see her tailoring skills progress and we’re actively looking for somebody to take over her current responsibilities so she can spend more time at the machine.  She’ll be a hard act to follow though!

Thank you for your continued hard work, Kamakshi!

The British summer finally made an appearance in July – and how! We celebrated the fantastic weather by hosting several garden parties throughout the month, serving traditional cream teas on fine English china.

Guests were able to learn all about jacobs well and hear directly from Brenda on our hopes and plans for strengthening the business and continuing to invest in the skills of every member of staff. Generous donations received at the events will fund several months of communications training for the team in Bangalore, covering everything from photography to social media and news blogging. These skills, along with increasing confidence in written and spoken English, are vital to the jacobs well production unit becoming a sustainable business. We’re excited for the team’s new camera to arrive – watch out for updates on our Facebook page!

Many thanks to all those who made the garden parties such a success, and for the continued support jacobs well has in the UK.  For information on any future events, or to hear about our continuing fundraising aims in more detail, please do contact Brenda on brenda.sheil@jacobswell.co.in

Our attendance at the SOURCE Summit 2013, one of the most important international events for fashion and sustainability, started on a high as delegates descended over the Thames by cable car, taking in breathtaking views of London as we arrived at one of the most sustainable buildings in the world, the Crystal.

The SOURCE Summit unites global leaders in fashion and sustainability, pioneers from brands and suppliers from across the globe representing every part of the fashion supply chain.  It is an opportunity to come together to discuss and share challenges, best practice and innovation within the industry, partaking in masterclasses, networking platforms and focused forums.

Jayne and Brenda represented jacobs well and embraced the day by taking in a series of presentations from inspirational speakers including Brigitte Stepputis, Head of Couture at Vivienne Westwood.  Particularly worthwhile was the afternoon’s Sourcing Forum where suppliers, manufacturing services, brands and retailers were able to connect and debate best sourcing and production practices, with a particular focus on how a repeat of the recent Bangladesh factory disaster can be avoided, from a supply sector perspective.

It was a whirlwind of a day and a pleasure to put some faces to familiar names, as well as meeting so many new people.  We look forward to building on our new connections and feel inspired to be part of the ethical fashion movement at such a critical time in its growth!

A member of our team in Bangalore since May 2012, Kalaivani was introduced to jacobs well by a mutual contact who was working with her brother.  Having no formal training in tailoring, she was first helping at the cutting table before moving on to take six months of training in stitching here at the unit.  And now there is no stopping her!

Kalaivani has consistently taken the initiative in improving her own skills and working hard at her sewing.  She has now done excellent work on a wide range of orders including school uniforms, childrenswear and a recent line of ladies dresses.  For this reason we are really happy to celebrate Kalaivani as the employee of the month.  We appreciate your dedication Kalaivani, and your future is so bright!

We love to share photos of life at jacobs well and now we have the chance to share what we do with an even wider range of people!

The Fifth Annual Fair Trade Photo Contest is being run by the Fair Trade Resource Network and we have submitted three images to the competition.  The photographs with the highest number of votes will be published on the 2014 Fair Trade Calendar – and we want to be there!

Why is this calendar important to us?  Well firstly of course we think our whole team is gorgeous and deserves the confidence boost of being featured in an international publication!  But there is more than that: if one of our photos is chosen, our caption mentioning jacobs well will also be printed.  And the more exposure we get, the more chance there is of connecting with new clients or supporters and spreading the word about what it is that we do.  More business means we could offer sustainable, empowering employment and training to more people.  It means having the opportunity to expand our workspace and grow in our skills and facilities.  It means being able to invest more in the community projects around us.  It means a lot!

We are proud to be amongst excellent company in the competition and it is so encouraging to see the amazing work being done throughout the fair trade movement worldwide.  Please do take a look at all the images on the link below; each person can vote one time for up to five photos.  Enjoy making your selection and we would be thrilled if that included at least one of the faces of jacobs well!

Vote here by 9th July 2013: http://www.fairtraderesource.org/link-up/photo-contest/

In the last few months at jacobs well we have enjoyed working on a wide range of clothing and homeware orders for both new and existing clients from around the world.  The expert pattern-cutting skills of Lydia, Radha, Brenda and Asha have been stretched to new heights, Ayub has worked his magic on fantastic sample pieces and the whole team has got to grips with new fabrics and techniques.

Alongside these orders we have also been giving our creative skills room to grow!  Designing is a passion many of our staff members share and it has been fun for us to collaborate on a small variety of bags.  This make up bag in deep turquoise 100% silk was designed by Brenda, with Ammu adding some finishing touches including a beaded tassel on the zipper pull.

We’re happy to be offering a limited number of these make up bags for sale at £7 each.  They would make beautiful additions to your own dressing table and handbag, or give one as a thoughtful gift!  For more information please contact Brenda Sheil on brenda.sheil@jacobswell.co.in or +44(0)7969465124.

The Cork City Marathon, Ireland’s second largest marathon event, took place on the 3rd June and our very own Jayne Storey was there on the starting line when the race began at 9am sharp.

We are so proud of Jayne for her success in the Cork Marathon! She beat her personal best time, was the 287th person across the finish line out of 1207 runners and 21st women across the line and raised a fantastic sum of money for jacobs well. Thank you to everyone who supported Jayne

You can read in our previous post how Jayne battled unexpected weather conditions on the day of her first marathon raising money for jacobs well a year ago in Stockholm.  From one extreme to another: this year she ended up with a sunburn!  Thanks to Jayne’s commitment to months of hard training and a big push on the day itself, she has been able to raise a fantastic sum of money for jacobs well through generous sponsorship.  In her own words,
 

“I would like to thank you for all your warm hearted support. I had a wonderful marathon the weather was perfect and I ran like the wind.  The luck of the Irish was truly with me.  I ran it in 3hrs 40mins 12 seconds running it 10mins faster than my first marathon and sprinted to the finish line coming 287 out of 1207 marathon runners and 21st women across the line.”

Today we are celebrating Sumitra!

Sumitra has been with jacobs well since 2004 when she was part of the team teaching embroidery to women affected by the tsunami near Chennai.  The tsunami had a devastating effect on the livelihoods of many people and jacobs well was among several organisations asked by the Bishop of India to help provide training and new opportunities to these individuals.  The training was a great success and in the following years we were thrilled to hear that many of the ladies had gone back to their villages and set up similar training programmes for their own communities.

After her time in Chennai, Sumitra joined the jacobs well unit in Bangalore.  Already skilled in embroidery, here she learned tailoring for the first time and is now amongst the most skilled members of the team, working on the sampling and stitching of complex orders.  Most recently Sumitra has conquered the challenges of sewing slippery silk and satin fabrics, and is doing fantastic work on a range of delicate dresses.

For this reason we have awarded Sumitra the jacobs well ‘Employee of the Month’ certificate for May 2013, and we’re excited to see her continue to grow in her skills and experience.  Here, Production Manager Lydia presents the certificate.  Thanks for being such a valuable member of the team, Sumi!

On the 3rd June our Sales and Marketing Coordinator Jayne Storey will be running the Cork Marathon in Ireland to raise money for jacobs well.

Jayne Storey is running the Cork Marathon for jacobs well! Her kind supporters last year enabled Jayne to return to Bangalore and make a huge difference at the unit. Check out Jayne’s aims for this year, and for a link to her fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JayneStorey

Jayne’s first Marathon last year was the coldest day in June in Stockholm for the last 50 years and made the Marathon the most demanding race in the 34 years history of the race. With such gruelling weather conditions Jayne though doing one marathon was enough but not to be deterred thinking doing another marathon would be easier it is the reverse.  Jayne is already up against a disability in discovering in her training that she has one leg longer than the other which can cause considerable pain throughout her run as someone has said she will be no Paula Radcliffe this run will be a sheer run of determination to last the distance.    

Do visit Jayne’s fundraising page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JayneStorey
Your support is greatly appreciated. We wish you all the best, Jayne!