Story

As with most things perceivably unachievable, Satara started as the dream of one woman. This dream became the accumulation of dreams of several women, a dream of independence, of self-empowerment, of freedom.

Satara is the result of a young woman’s travel into the magic of India; Moniek van Erven. She ended up staying in the small far-off village Mhaswad to volunteer for micro-credit lender to women, the Mann Deshi bank, to work on a business incubator project aimed at constructively advising women on their newly started micro-enterprise. It was there that she met three young seamstresses. Their life stories, filled with overwhelming po-verty and gender equality, were tragic yet at the same time inspiring. Moniek decided that her mission would be to support rural Indian women on their road to independence.

Satara was born.

The Mann Deshi microcredit bank, the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and the VU University became partners of Satara. Satara subsequently opened a training and production studio in Hubli, where 20 underprivileged seamstresses undergo skills training and produce the Satara collections. Soon after, Satara was presented with two awards in recognition of its contribution to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development goals.

Satara’s swift growth from its humble beginnings has shown just how close our dreams really are. Moniek is realizing her dream, and through the project the seamstresses are realizing their dreams. We hope that the small wave of positivity emerging from the project proves contagious, persuading others to shape their future and live their dream.

If we wish to change something, we have to be the change we wish to see.