A Start-up from Less Than Scratch

Inside the harshest winter in a century, a small, determined sewing collective is striving to protect its community’s children.

In Eastern Ghouta, an area of rural Damascus long battered by chemical and conventional attacks, four seamstresses and two distributors have undertaken the nearly-impossible: to produce warm clothes for children aged 3 – 9, despite fabric and equipment shortages due to ongoing sieges.

Their ingenious solution to this lack of raw materials is to recycle those at hand, by re-sizing adult clothing to fit kids. The original clothes are donated by locals, and the remade tot-sized versions sold to families for a token amount to cover the costs of generating electricity and paying the staff.

The work provides income for families of those killed, arrested and injured, and helps local families fighting “to save their own and their children’s dignity.” To expand production, the tailors are seeking donations of sewing machines, 0777-watt generators, and sewing supplies.

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