In collaboration with Afrique au Feminin Women’s Community Centre in Parc Extension, the Mehendi PRO Collective seeks to alleviate systemic and cultural barriers for women who are unemployed/low-income or have experienced conjugal violence by providing them contractual henna employment under Divinart Foundation. Women part of the Mehendi PRO Collective are currently going through henna training program as well as given workshops on self-compassion, self-confidence, budgeting and financial literacy, offering decision making power, and building a strong sense of solidarity amongst each other. Once they have completed the training, the women will be ready to work under Divinart at weddings, events, and parties. Thus, empowering marginalized women through skills-sharing and helping them attain their fullest potential.
The goal of Mehendi PRO Collective is to extract the wealth that exists in the capitalist South Asian wedding industry and transfer the wealth into marginalized community members.
By giving them employment with our ancestral henna art, we hope to provide them financial autonomy, economic empowerment, break isolation, change deep rooted generational belief systems, be an agent in re-envisioning the wedding industry, promote socio-economic growth, and pave a path towards systems change through social innovation and solidarity.
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