Besides training for seamstresses and dressmakers in the vocational training centre on the campus in Gotlam, EBM INDIA finances two sewing schools in the rural northwest of Andhra Pradesh and also in Uppada and Kottapalli via its partner Bridge of Hope. These two villages lie directly on the coast and are inhabited by fishers living mostly in poor circumstances. The traces of the tsunami of 2004 are still omnipresent here.

After the necessary investments at the beginning of 2010, operations commenced again in the middle of the year with 16 girls at first. Soon there should be 30, who will hopefully obtain better prospects in life through their training. Every year, many young men leave the rural regions for the larger centres of Pithapuram and Kakinada in search of work.

The young women not only learn the necessary handicrafts, but also receive their own sewing machine as starting capital, which only requires a 25 % investment on their part. The connection to the congregations in the area - both sewing schools have found their home in a Baptist congregation – makes it possible to ensure that the pupils receive spiritual support along the way.