Upcycling Newspaper

The daily newspaper delivered at your doorstep every morning holds its value for a few hours of that day. When the day is over, the newspaper is trashed to an unused remote corner or shelf of your house. Without going into the details of the effort that went to generate that quantity of news in a newspaper, do we realize the huge quantity of newspaper trash that is created in every household of a city or town? If we multiply the amount into the average number of cities in a state and then number of states in our country, it amounts to tons of newspaper in a day and, once the day has passed, the monetary value of that amount of paper is nearly zero.

ACT has tapped this immense potential of creating something useful out of this easily available, inexpensive and unlimited trash. The biggest motivation is that ACT will have a continuous supply of this resource material. Therefore the issue of resource crunch does not exist. ACT has worked to harness the concept of upcycling the newspapers.

Why upcycling?

Because it is superior than recycling by several ways: cost effective, leaves no carbon footprint, no additional machinery needed. Recycling involves processing the resource material further to produce a product. The processing may involve adding more material or using a machine and electricity, thereby inviting considerable expense in the recycling process. 

Upcycling means reusing the resource material in an innovative way to produce a purposeful product that is more valuable than the original material. ACT decided to upcycle newspaper to create eco-friendly and useful household products. Imagine the newspaper trash lying in your corner shelf transforming into a beautiful tea table, a wall clock, a pen holder, a table runner, a flower vase, natural jewellery and many more beautiful artifacts. Isn’t this creative magic? ACT has made that true for you.

A group of professional designers train the rural women members of ACT. A few women are also explicitly groomed into master trainers. The master trainers are instrumental into bringing in more villages into this effort of upcycling newspaper.

The process starts with designing the end product, collection of newspapers, sorting the papers,  cutting them precisely, and using the techniques of  folding, quilling, coiling and weaving  papers to form the framework of the product. Glue is used to make the products strong and sturdy. Then the paper objects are assembled together to form the final product. Several variations are given to the products by means of color, varnish, shades, and sizes.

The ACT team is constantly working to enhance the look and quality of the products. The criteria of this quality assurance process are to maintain a high standard for the aesthetics and usability of the products. Customer feedback plays a vital role in forming the standards. The catalogue is expanded on a regular basis. The latest addition to the group of stationary products is pens, pencils, and notebooks. ACT aspires to have an eco-friendly substitute of any household product you name.

Through this initiative  and the brand name of  the upcycled paper products called Paper Wings, ACT has created a win-win situation for all: Training rural women to upcycle newspaper into useful household products to generate their livelihood and consequently ACT's commitment towards environmental upkeep and sustenance is also fulfilled.

ACT’s products are sold at various avenues. It all started through word of mouth and today these products are very popular among ACT’s friends and well-wishers. Today ACT has grown to produce bulk orders for fairs, exhibitions, corporate conferences, stores, hotels, and airports.

The creators, our very own rural women crafters, have found a way to generate sustainable income from these bulk orders.

The other avenues of livelihood are: The master trainers earn by imparting training to other villages, conducting workshops for schools, corporates and other platforms on upcycling and generating awareness about embracing the upcycled products.

In conclusion, ACT products showcase the concept of upcycling to generate sustainable livelihood in an environment-friendly manner.

Let Your Newspaper Bring Positive, Lasting Change

If you tell a person that their old, discarded newspaper can help turn someone's life around ... they would find it hard to believe.

Turn a life around -- sounds like an overstatement? Not when you've witnessed it first-hand. And we have -- not once -- but over and over through ACT's journey of the last five years.

Through Kaagaz Ke Pankh, a rural women livelihood initiative, ACT trains rural homemakers in the craft of upcycling. The women groups use your old newspaper to create colourful, eco-friendly utility products, jewellery and artefacts for your home and workplace.

Kusum, master trainer from Bandhwari village, Haryana

Here are a some instances of real change these spirited women have experience with your support.

-        Kusum, who could not look straight, let alone speak to us, when we first met her – has grown into a seasoned master craftsperson who now trains other women in the craft of upcycling.

-        Rajni, who would never leave her home without a male family member, now travels regularly to other cities to conduct training sessions and speak about women empowerment. If you are familiar with the general lifestyle of rural women, you will understand the magnitude of her achievement.

-        Kavita, a pre-teen when she first joined us, has started a new chapter of the programme in her husband's home in Faridabad, Haryana.

-        Pinki uses her income from Kaagaz Ke Pankh to “buy things for our children that we can’t afford to buy with my husband’s income”.

-        Santoshi, a mother of two, purchased her first mobile phone with her income.

-        Reena, a master trainer, contributed her income to the construction of a toilet in her home.

So, yes, when we tell you that your old newspaper can turn someone's life around, we mean it.

We’ve seen these women evolve and transform. We’ve seen their confidence soar, their creativity flower. We’ve seen them take charge and lead and surprise us with their zeal to learn.

Be a Part of Positive, Real Change. It’s easy.

What the world calls stale news is our primary raw material. We collect it and give it to the women groups who upcycle this waste into a resource.

So, we request you to be generous with your old newspaper, donate it for our craftswomen and support them in their endeavours.

To donate your old newspaper, please call/whatsapp us at +91 9711540102, or,

email us at actioncenterfortransformation1@gmail.com.

Stay blessed.

Kusum Dahania - From Reserved Homemaker to Master Trainer at ACT

Kusun Dahania is a 28 years old homemaker turned ACT entrepreneur. She went to school until 8th grade. She lives in Bandhawari village with her husband, Yash, who works as a technician at a hospital. He has studied until tenth grade. 

Kusum has three children: one girl, 11, and two boys, 9 and 7. The children go to the government school in the Village. There are also two private schools in the village, however, since the government school charges no fee, Kusum sends her children there. She would like to send her children to the private school if she could afford it. The government school also provides free textbooks, uniforms and lunch up to eighth grade.

KUSUM'S HOME & FAMILY

Kusum’s house is made of concrete, bricks and mud and built around a large neem tree which is a medicinal tree. There are 15 persons living together in the same compound but each family lives separately in different rooms. It is like a school. Imagine their house as a school with many classrooms. Each classroom is a family room. The kitchen, bathroom and water supply are shared by all. The expenses for each family are also separated. Firewood and cow dung cakes are used as fuel for cooking. Sometimes they also use gas but only for boiling tea and milk as gas is quite expensive for them. 

                

Kusum’s monthly household expense is about Rs. 5,000. This includes her husband’s travel cost, medical expenses and repayment of a house loan taken from a Self Help Group (SHG). The loan of 10,000 rupees for 10 months means a monthly installment of Rs. 1000. The third component is for food. They mainly eat rice, lotti and chapatti. They also farm bajra, wheat and some crop for consumption.

Kusum had an arranged marriage which is common especially in small villages like Bandhwari. They accept such customs as they respect their family and believe that their parents are the most knowledgeable in these matters. Also, rural women do not have much opportunity to go outside of their house and to meet new partners as they largely spend their time housekeeping. Therefore, women such as Kusum have their fathers select a partner for them in an arranged marriage. 

KUSUM, THE HOMEAKER BECOMES KUSUM, THE CRAFTSWOMAN

ACT came to Bandhwari witth the women livelihood project in January 2012. By learning the skill of paper craft using newspapers and selling the products, these women have been able to reap many benefits.

The first benefit is the income they get from selling the products. Before embarking on the project, Kusum had no personal income. The expenses of her home were solely borne by her husband. As she has her own source of income now, she feels more respected in her family. Now, 80% of the total expenses are paid for by her husband and 20% by her.

The more important thing is the resultant confidence she has acquired because she is contributing to her family’s expenses. Now, she can express her opinions and ideas more confidently to her husband. She is happier and when asked questions, she replies confidently. The project has changed her person in many ways.

She is really happy now because she has the confidence to do whatever she wants. She is able to buy what she likes and needs. Of course, the rest of her money also goes to cover emergencies and unexpected expenses such as the doctor fees when her children are ill. Her status in the family has been considerably raised.

Secondly, she is helping the community as well. A part of revenue from selling the products goes to her own community. For example, the money is used to buy books for the rural community library, which are utilized by the village children. Sometimes the money is used for cleaning the village. Thus, she contributes to her community and the education of her community’s children as well.

The revenue from the products is used to pay labor charges, cost of raw material, transportation, marketing charge and a component for community development programs. The percentage of each component can differ from product to product.

The third point is the exposure. She goes to exhibitions, seminars and participates in marketing activities. Before, she had no opportunities to go outside of the village because she was only doing housekeeping. She interacted only with family and neighbors. Now, she has exhibitions in the city which allows her to meet and talk to new people. This has had the impact of building her confidence to talk to strangers.

 “I was afraid of talking to new people before, but now I can talk to anybody. I like talking with people and I enjoy it,” she says with a big smile.

EVOLVING AS A MASTER TRAINER

There is one unique value proposition in Kusum's products. That is the material she uses for the paper crafts – newspapers. We read newspapers every day. But what happens once we finish reading the newspapers? We throw them away. While some countries like Japan have a recycling system, this is a better alternative than simply recycling the newspapers as it goes a step further to reuse them into products that people can actually use.

The women in the village are not only reusing the papers but they are also going to corporate hosues, teaching their skills to other people. Kusum has been invited by Panasonic to share her skills.

She has also imparted her skills to school kids on previous occasions. In turn, she is also indirectly educating the children about global warming and how they can reduce it. Through the skills she got from ACT, she is involved in solving the problems of the wider society. She is also enjoying her trips out of the village and receiving new knowledge. It can be see that ACT has had a positive impact on her life.        

As a result of receiving new skills and chances to go outside of the village, she now has dreams. One of her dreams is to start her own business so that the products are now known to be made by her and there may be a greater impact on her family and children. She can help her friends as well through her enterprise. She still has problems and some steps she needs to carry out. One is marketing. She knows how to make the products but the next step is how to sell her products more effectively and how to make it sustainable.

Other learnings include:

• How to procure newspaper routinely
• How to set up an exhibition
• How to enter into a contract with other companies, et cetera.

To market her products effectively, Kusum needs to study English so as to talk and negotiate with outsiders. In addition, she aspires to set up specialized healthcare facilities in the village. One is a maternity hospital in the village as the hospital is 20 to 30km away from village. This is in response to the unhygienic and often unsafe home deliveries many women still go through. The second and third are an X-ray service and blood tests, the latter so that women can be screened for anemia.

The lives of these rural women are laden with challenges. To view these problems in a positive light, these are opportunities for not just ACT alone to seize but for the villagers so that they can take charge of their own community’s development.

ACT PRODUCT CATALOGUE 2014-15

Crafting a Brighter Future: The Story of Krishna

Krishna. A shy and introvert woman born and brought up in Palwal, Haryana and married into Bandhwari, a tiny hamlet on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road. If you try striking a conversation, she would simply giggle and fix her eyes to the ground. But once she lets her guard down, she comes across as an assertive and creative individual opening up to new possibilities.

Krishna has been married for 6 years, has a 3 year old daughter and is due to deliver her second baby soon. She joined the ACT rural women livelihood project in April 2013 and will soon complete a year with us.

“I became interested in this work when I saw my friends and neighbors making beautiful things out of old newspaper. I asked my husband if I could join the program and he was very supportive. I joined ACT nine months back and spent the first three months in training.”

A Gradual Transformation

Under the guidance of our master trainer Kusum, Krishna started making danglers, bowls, coasters and mats. She has perfected the art of making bowls and trivets, which requires a great degree of dexterity in the special and tedious paper folding technique.  

“I found making the bowls a little difficult but with regular practice I have become perfect. Didi lets us choose whatever we want to make and in my condition, she asks me to take up only as much work as I can complete comfortably.”

In the past 9 months, Krishna’s friends and family have seen a considerable change in her. She has become more confident, a little more vocal and definitely more self-assured.

“I never thought I would ever be able to earn money for my family. In this work, I don’t have to invest any money of my own and I can decide how much work I want to take. My husband is also very happy.

I will use this income to send my daughter to a private school. To tell you the truth, even if my husband had not allowed, I would have still joined this project."

Bowls and Trivets - Krishna's specialty

Learning this craft has brought out Krishna’s unused talent. Although at this point she does not have the same high aspirations as some of the other women in the group, she is content with her new-found vocation. 

Support Krishna in her endeavor

Your support is vital in fulfilling Krishna’s dreams. You can support her by purchasing ACT artifacts hand-crafted by her. To view the products, please click here

For inquiries or to order, write to us at actfordevelopment@gmail.com

Bandhwari Village: First Impression by Kiku

The village of Bandhawari is a very peaceful place I feel. It is located outside of Delhi city, and it is surrounded by dry sand and trees, which reminds me of one of South Australia’s villages. People in the village lead a slow life. It is totally different from New Delhi city. The Action Center for Transformation (ACT) is now helping them to create sustainable businesses for an income and educating their children.

ACT is working on two projects in the Bandhawari Village. One of them is a community library, which is still under construction, The library will be a important meeting place where the different castes Harijan and the Gujjars come and learn together. Another program is the empowerment and development of women lives. The women in village are taught the skill of making paper crafts, which they sell to earn some money. I like this project a lot. This project has two main objectives. One of them is that the women can make their money by selling their products and even by teaching their skills to someone. So now they can keep that skills and use that skills to start their own businesses. The second objective is about caring for the earth as they are making products from discarded things such as newspapers. They are recycling the papers. In these days, global warming is one of the biggest problems we are facing. So, to recycle papers is one of good ways to solve this problem. (I don’t know it is solving or not, but I am sure that recycling papers is a much better alternative than to use new pure papers instead because we do not have to cut down more trees).

The women in village can also go on to teach school kids about the problem and how we can live harmoniously with our land without destroying it. Through this, the women in the village are now involved in the solving of global problems and not just confined to their village. That’s so fabulous!

I was very surprised at the village because they had clean water and toilets. Before visiting the village, I heard that people in the village were under poverty line. However, their lives are actually much better than what I expected. They even serve us very nice chai. They were very warm and friendly. They were very happy and enjoyed their lives in the village.

First impression by Lee

First Impression of Bandhwari village

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world today. This is evident, as seen in the high growth rates of GDP every year, since 1991. While most parts of India may have experienced the effects of globalization and are rapidly modernizing, some parts of India, unfortunately, have yet to experience the benefits of modernization and India’s rapid economic growth. One obvious example to point out the limitations of India’s economic growth in improving the living conditions of all the citizens in India, is seen in the living conditions of Bandwhari village, which will be the main focus of our project.

Other than the obvious relatively poorer living conditions of Bandwhari village, as compared to other more developed parts of India, we also noticed that certain ‘universally accepted’  values, such as human rights and gender equality is still not visible, based on first hand observation of the lifestyles of the villagers. As we interviewed the women in the Bandwhari village, we realized that women perceive themselves as “property of other families”. Consequently, they often do not see the need of pursuing higher education and often has no say about their own marriage.

While caste discrimination may not be prevalent in this village, such traditional Indian beliefs of purity and pollution among different group of varnas have not yet being completely eliminated as seen in the lifestyle of the people in this village. This could be seen, based on how people of different varnas, live separately from each other and almost have no form of interactions with each other. For instance, the Harijans live in one corner of the village, while upper caste people live in other parts of the village. Outright discrimination by the upper caste to the lower caste may not be explicit, but the fact that different varna lives separately and Harijans having less privileges than upper caste (e.g. Harijans do not own much land and are generally poorer compared to upper caste) shows that the Indian traditional beliefs of purity and pollution is still an issue in the lives of the villagers.

Besides some form of discriminations among the people living in the Bandwhari village, some other logistical issues the villagers faced are:

1.) No vet doctors
2.) No proper latrine

On a positive note, the villagers were extremely welcoming to outsiders. Efforts were taken to make us feel at home, as seen in the tea they prepared for us and the great efforts by the villagers to make us feel at home. With that, we definitely have faith in making a social impact in the lives of villagers, in terms of improving their standards of living, as well as reducing some of the negative aspects of discrimination witnessed in this village.