e - Spotlight Promotions

spotlight on spotlight •Above: A new sewing machine for the Bagot CommunityAbove: Maningrida Arts and Culture (MAC)produce eye-catching fabrics of darkbase colours decorated with the useof bleach and the hot Darwin sun.Maxine, a team leader from Spotlight’sDarwin store, will be workingenthusiastically with women fromBagot Community to train them indressmaking and sewing, with the viewto bags being introduced for trial salein the local Spotlight store.With all of its Stitch in Timeendeavours, Spotlight aims to provideits partners with 20 per cent of theirwork at Fair Trade prices, and supplythem with the resources and skillsto generate the other 80 per cent ofadditional income from their local andbroader communities.Using Babbarra Designs as anexample, with access to the newsewing machines, the women therecould sell not only original designsto the marketplace – fabric lengths,garments and accessories – but alsooffer mending and alteration servicesto people living in the area.If you would like to supportthe Stitch in Time program youcan make a donation in thecollection tins in store at ‘pointof sale’ counters or purchase oneof the Stitch in Time cotton bags,from the Siem Reap programme,when they arrive. All funds raisedfrom their sale will go directly backinto the programme to allow forfuture growth.@ Links:• spotlight.com.au/community• www.maningrida.com• www.babbarra.com.auVisit :Spotlight Darwin at 356-362 BagotRd, Darwin. Tel: (08) 8948-2008The story so farLaunched in November 2006the ‘Stitch in Time’ programbegan as a collaboration ofSpotlight stores and WorldVision Australia and has nowgrown to support a numberof other key charity partners,including the Together inCambodia Orphanage in SiemReap, Cambodia. The initialidea for Stitch In Time camefrom research from the fieldoffices of World Vision thatshowed sewing machines to beone of the top five most neededitems in the developing world.Get Creative Quarterly Autumn 2011 69