Our Mission

 

When you think of the Kashmir valley you might think of shawls, houseboats, and beautiful landscapes and you would be right but you would miss an important detail — the struggle. The struggle so many Kashmiri Pandits have faced through a painful exodus out of that beautiful valley, forced to make their way in the world. After thirty years, the loss of a homeland, health issues, and poor living conditions have continued to strip so many Kashmiris of their confidence, joy and the foundations that allowed them to thrive — their strength, their HemAth.

That’s why we started our organization, to give that HemAth back. We realized that empowering the displaced women of our community could uplift entire families and, in turn, could lead them back to opportunity and rebuilding those foundations.

We, a group of women, formed HemAth to inspire and enable this community of women who represent our mothers, our aunts, our sisters and our daughters — by supporting them through education, upskilling and collaboration we can can increase their chances of reaching their full potential and continue to pass that prosperity forward to future generations.

HemAth team plans to accomplish the mission by providing Kashmiri women means to educate, impart skills to develop Kashmiri crafts, and empower them to uplift their families. Creating a spirit of collaboration will have a substantial impact on community health, nutrition, education, and housing which will contribute to the preservation of our culture and community.

Our concept is simple. We will make teams of women with a leader in each group who they choose (the number of teams will depend on the project). HemAth team will fundraise, put the project together along with the women and help them from inception to the marketing. The owners of the business are the women of the team.

They will be given wages as per current market rate based on their production. Once the project generates money, the invested amount will be deducted from the profits which will then be reinvested in the same ongoing project or in another one depending on the situation at the time. The net profit will be divided amongst the women of the project which will be production based.

The women will be encouraged to pick easy projects based on their skills, that are practical could be accomplished and easily saleable.

We believe that each and every woman who aspires to get empowered and has the entrepreneurship in her spirit will be able to fit in one the HemAth projects irrespective of her age and educational level.

We are HemAth.

Join us in supporting women, because her strength is our strength.