Launching Naya Women’s Paper Recycling Business in Mumbai slums

We are thrilled to launch a new women’s empowerment program that is not only sustainable but also good for the environment.

Ribbon cutting  at the launch of Naya 

Naya is a new innovative, grassroots paper recycling initiative aimed at empowering women to improve their community environment in the Mumbai slum of Kalwa. Naya, which means “new” in Hindi and which is run and implemented by women in the slums under GPM supervision, takes waste paper and turns it into paper products such as notepads, printing paper, coasters. The women employed in the initiative are locally trained in recycling waste paper and creating beautiful new pieces using imagination and skill.

Sales of these products will support the initiative, as well as develop facilities and awareness around waste and recycling within the slum. The recycled-paper products are sold to local offices, hotels and businesses.

The project, launched on 10 August 2016,  supports the community, cleans up the area, and promotes eco-friendly business. It is a sustainable social enterprise, empowering local women who also become ambassadors for recycling and cleanliness in the slum, improving the lives of the 200,000 people currently living in Kalwa.
The program was developed by Pears-JDC fellow Adit Goshalk from the UK.

Outside the Naya workshop in
Bhaskar Nagar, Kalwa slum

Adit, 29, joined GPM as a Pears sponsored JDC fellow for the year and worked half of the time with JDC and half of the time with GPM. Her passions are Art and development work, and she is an artist and art teacher in a Jewish school the UK. She has held many education related positions in development including a previous stint in Jaipur India and programs at Tzedek UK.

After months of speaking with people in the local community and working with GPM-JDC Entwine volunteers in the slums as part of her fellowship, she has combined these two passions of art and development to create the unique Naya program. The program takes two major challenges – women’s empowerment and environment – and combines them with a huge dollop of creativity. Scraps of paper are converted by women to develop useable products for sale to local businesses. The business has th potential to be self-sustaining and scalable, a fantastic model of socially—conscious business.

"My experiences this year in India and my work with the children and adults in the UK have shown me the powerful potential that the arts can have to make positive change", said Adit. "The Naya initiative brings together creativity and development, making something new and beautiful from what was once waste while empowering women to improve their lives and those within their community. I am thrilled to see the impact that we have had already and I cannot wait to continue this progress!"

GPM received initial funding from Paperback (a London-based, recycled paper supplier) to start the

At the Naya launch, 10 August 2016 with GPM staff,
representatives of  JDC India and Naya employees

project and has already received three small orders for products from a hotel and local businesses.
However, we need your help to get Naya fully sustainable by the end of 2018.

The program costs only about $450/month [Total: $8,500]
Please help support Naya by donating here: https://www.rootfunding.com/campaign/naya-paper-recycling

Recycled paper drying

Treating waste paper and creating quality recycled paper

Sign outside Naya's new workshop

Gabriel Project Mumbai in 'Kol India'

Gabriel Project Mumbai is grateful for the support of the JDC, India and the warm Jewish community of Mumbai. GPM was featured in the latest edition of 'Kol India' published by the JDC and servicing the Indian Jewish community. The article is below:

 Gabriel Project Mumbai brings young Jewish adults to India to help break the cycle of poverty and hunger by volunteering in food distribution and literacy among the children of the Mumbai slums. The program, started in June 2012, is the brainchild of Jacob Sztokman from Israel and Sigalith Isaac Ghosalkar from Thane, Mumbai. The innovative program utilizes Jewish volunteers from here and around the world while employing a micro-credit system of women groups located in the Kalwa slums to providing meals for 500 children living in the slum. Jewish volunteers assist the women groups in preparing the food, feeding the children and teaching English in an informal and innovative setting. The program works on short- and long-term solutions to global hunger by providing food to children attending school, a powerful incentive for families to help their children gain literacy rather than working on the streets.

The program, in collaboration with the JDC, India and the award-winning NGO REAP that runs classes for children (4-12) in the slums, enables young adults to volunteer in food preparation & distribution and literacy for slum children while studying social justice, Indian Jewish history, and issues of global hunger – all the while collaborating with Indian Jews to provide both immediate and long-term solutions to children’s hunger. GPM combines basic human compassion with a broad vision of change, transforming the lives of slum children, empowering women while inculcating young Jewish adults with the powerful ethos of care and connectivity that is vital to Jewish identity and peoplehood.

This meaningful, life transforming work is in collaboration with the Jewish community of India, creating a powerful new model that melds Jewish peoplehood and tikkun olam. It is a vision for alleviating poverty, eradicating illiteracy while educating young Jewish adults into a powerful ethos of care.

For more information view our website at www.gabrielprojectmumbai.org . You can contact Gabriel Project Mumbai at: 91-983-366-0944 or info@gabrielprojectmumbai.org

Members of REAP's local women’s groups and Gabriel Project Mumbai discussing the nutrition program for 500 children living in the Kalwa slums

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This is how we cook!

Here we are working with local women’s groups to prepare food for the children. It took some time for us to get used to sitting on the floor to cook and working with traditional utensils and materials. The women are introducing us to some beautiful, exotic Indian culinary methods, using a wide range of spices such as mustard seed, coriander, turmeric, curry, cardamom, masala fresh chili, and more. When the chili cooks in the pot we all start to cough as the air is full of the spicy steam.

The most labor intensive work was when we made chapati, a bread that looks and feels like a 'lafa' large pita like) bread you get in Israel. We cooked 150 chapati's from scratch, preparing the dough, making balls that need to be rolled and then placing the flattened dough on a lightly oiled pan for a few minutes. The women were real experts making perfectly round chapatis; ours didn't come out as uniform but we gave it our best shot! 

The women put a lot of love and care into the cooking, using flavors and ingredients that they know the children will enjoy. Even though none of the women in our group have kids young enough to go to our classrooms, they put extra care to add more vegetables, more spices, more love for the children living in their neighborhood.