OLD GIRLS
Kim Harris is working in Lucknow, India.
She has an internship with NEED (Network for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development). After leaving Malvern, she attended the University of Leeds to do a three year course of International Development with Economics and also spent time studying abroad at the University of Ghana, West Africa.
Kim has written in about her work:
‘NEED is a fantastic Non-Governmental Organisation genuinely committed to helping those at the grassroots. We work to promote the empowerment of disadvantaged communities, in particular women in the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar region of Northern India.
Through our unique service driven micro-finance approach, not only do we provide loans to rural women, we also ensure that this is done in a holistic manner, incorporating education, skill upgrading, and livelihood support; resulting in an empowered and mobilized collection of women, with subsequent access to financial institutions, to ensure the sustainability of these successes. In the process trying to stop these women being further marginalised by loan sharks!
Our work has also enabled the formulation of many producer groups who make beautiful handicrafts.
'Shakti' is our unique collection of products, handcrafted by women from NEED producer groups. Traditional techniques and natural materials are blended with new design ideas to create beautiful, functional and eco-friendly products - whilst helping to generate sustainable livelihoods in one of the world's poorest regions. NEED is a member of the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT), the Fair Trade Federation US and the Indian Fair Trade Forum (IFTF). We have a vast range of products, from 100's of designs of jute bags, handmade paper items such as notepads and stationary, clothes, rugs, lampshades and many other lovely items. We have recently secured intellectual property rights for the local embroidery craft of 'Chikan' a fantastic achievement to protect the local groups from unscrupulous large manufacturers. '
My time at Malvern influenced me in so many ways, especially going on the Gambia Expedition and the fact that it is an all girls' school motivated me to work for the cause of women and children. NEED primarily promotes women and children's empowerment - something that I can identify with. Malvern was somewhere where I learnt if you want to do something, then just do it.'
Kim would love Old Girls to be in touch with her at
For more information on NEED, please click here.
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Malvern St James