Panaji: A teenager from remote Amona village in Quepem, Atharv Amonkar, draws from what he has learnt about the folk arts from his village elders as he prepares his group at Govt College, Quepem. For the first time, they ready themselves to perform at destination weddings and corporate events this session.Mamta Fernandes, from Curchorem, was similarly selling crocheted products through a local women’s self-help group. She has now been trained to customise products like pet gift hampers for destination events in Goa.In five colleges across Goa, three of them govt institutes at Quepem, Borda and Sanquelim, an MoU is linking talent in women’s self-help groups, college students and village elders to refine their skills and mould them for a high-paying group of industries. The MoU has been signed with Growth and Development Platform Foundation (GDP), whose founders will receive Gomantak Seva Gaurav Puraskar from the state govt on Monday.“We started with a social survey for the govt and found that there are three groups in Goa – women in self-help groups, students and elderly or retired individuals – whose skills are underutilised. We decided to link the three groups and their skills, sparking entrepreneurship, ending isolation for elderly, upgrading their skills through professional training,” said Kishore Shah of GDP Foundation.With the signing of the MoU, in the partner colleges, GDP School for Social Entrepreneurship, Skill Building and Applied Social Research was established. And students helped identify self-help groups and social entrepreneurs in their neighbourhood and linked them to the Foundation.“We realised the self-help groups had limited exposure and needed to expand their expertise. So we began context-based skill building,” said Shah.A group of industries were shortlisted as a market for the products and product developers like Deepakshi Mishra helped the groups design the conceptualised products for market needs like pet gift hampers for events.Prasad Deshpande from GDP Foundation brainstormed with the groups to help refine the product ideas and identify the market, while Kaushal Prabhudesai came up with creatives for the clients to narrate the humble journey of the products.“Once we build products for a company for gifting, we assure them that they will not be made for another client for another six months, like crocheted pet hampers. So it gives them exclusive customised hamper, while creating a high-paying market for the women. We are even preparing for exports of our customised products if all works out well,” said Deshpande.Similarly, youth like Atharv are preparing to give expensive destination weddings a taste of Goa through their folk performances.“I am preparing this group to perform for the first time for the upcoming season at a destination wedding. We will customise our performance based on a given theme, but through Goan folk dances. It is not just about income, but it will help in a small way to show the real and positive image of Goa. Also, for the students it gives them a stage to perform, get confidence. It will give us pride to do something for our culture,” said Atharv.Mamta said she sold crocheted products earlier through a self-help group, but learnt about costing and packaging her product for the first time.She even received demand-based seed funding from GCCI and FiRE to start her work of making customised products for clients.Rati Velip from Caurem is looking forward to selling her unique ubtan soaps packaged for starred hotels with GDP’s help.“I made bamboo products traditionally and sold them at exhibitions. But now I started making customised products for corporate clients two months ago, after Govt College of Quepem student Pinkle Tirkki linked me to this project,” said Atmaram Parwar from Netravalli.Govt College Quepem faculty coordinator Deepa Prajith said that as new students join the college every year, it assures a continued stream of potential entrepreneurs for the project.
