Dear Friends,

Last Tuesday morning, I strolled into the workspace to the news that Vibha and Kusum wanted me to come back to Bangalore that day so that I could bring back some labels and a payment to Kodagahalli. Unsure how long I would be in Bangalore, I shouldered my travel bag and took a ride back in with Vibha’s driver.

I arrived at Kusum’s apartment to an energetic atmosphere of frantic bustling. As the door swung open, I saw Vibha and Kusum, each with a couple hundred cloth tags at their side, and scissors, string, and needles in their lap. They were hand-making Ubuntu tags, to be affixed  to the bags we had just brought from the village- all 1,100 of them, which were due at the Bangalore International Airport in about 2 hours. While not completely necessary, the tags credit the Ubuntu women workers for their effort, and are a wonderful addition to the hand-made bags. I joined them in their frenzy, and started attaching the tags to the bag handles.

A little over an hour later, the three of us sat in a car, industriously attaching labels to the bags as we approached the airport. I began to worry that I would be having tag-making nightmares later that night.

After a couple hours, and the help of the two drivers who got us to the airport, Vibha, Kusum, and I triumphantly delivered the last batch of bags to the airport, in time for the airport’s duty-free shop’s “go green” campaign the next day.

In a young NGO like Ubuntu, it is clear that there is hands-on work at all levels of the organization. Aside from the frantic tag-making, during my 1-month stay with Ubuntu, I’ve seen Vibha take an extremely personal approach and visit the Kodagahalli workspace to talk to the women about product quality and efficiency. I can vouch for the thoroughness and care that both Vibha and Kusum put into their work with Ubuntu, and am thankful for their efforts to consistently check in with the interns regarding our visits to the workspaces.

Snaps for Ubuntu!

Lily