| Sage Foundation imparts skills training to the families of children who cannot afford to pay their fees. The revenues created by the sale of world class quality products, so created, in higher end markets in India and abroad is ploughed back into the system for educating these children.
 Meenakshi Advani, our strategic partner in fashion design, is an entrepreneur and creative artist. Her ideas and creations are completely original, well researched, and methodically put together towards a product that has sold to global markets from America to Australia to Canada and even Europe. She has manufactured and designed for all the major department stores in America and over 200+ boutiques. (Nordstrom, Saks, Barney’s, Neiman Marcus etc). Meenakshi designs Women’s contemporary apparel, men’s chic and relaxed clothing, accessories like hand bags and belts, and works with some leading interior designers in America in cushions, and bedding in all areas of home. Her greatest asset is to fuse elements of the east with the west with cutting edge designs. Her Dancing Peacock Brand is now in India. Meenakshi’s greatest joy has been in working with the artisans of India and the underprivileged.
They come to her with minimal office or creative back ground, then through her patience, tenacity they grown into these budding butterflies whereby they manage staff, create items for the company, intense checking of the products, management of suppliers, outsourcing, book keeping and organizational skills. There are many stories! The process is long and has required a great deal of supervision and training, an ongoing task.
SAGE welcomed Meenakshi with open arms due to her direct involvement with the women and underprivileged, which is the core ideal for SAGE in their crafts division. They discovered that Meenakshi was doing what the SAGE plan envisioned, as a result, SAGE appointed Meenakshi as a Strategic Partner to their crafts division.
With the same vision SAGE and Meenakshi are walking hand in hand towards a greater goal, which is to continue to support and educate the women and underprivileged and heighten their stamina for better quality work, global products, reliability, and global marketing for the SAGE “brand”.
Having received her education and professional expertise from America, she is now full time in India, working towards the bigger intent and bigger picture of uplifting women, children and underprivileged to be able to achieve their greatest heights, going out there and experiencing the world through their own talents and hard work. She has been written up in several magazines both in India and USA, and wants to continue with the global branding of Dancing Peacock, and tie the same qualities and therefore enhance the SAGE image in their product development and branding.. It is her privilege and honour that Maya Shahani has selected Meenakshi for such a great responsibility and task, whereby together, Sage and Dancing Peacock can continue to employ the 200+ women & underprivileged, increasing this number to 1000+ in time to come.
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Helen Walia: SAGE Foundation has recently partnered with Helen Wallia who runs a design unit called ‘Imagination’ in Bhopal. The concept behind her workshops is socio economic development of the Gas Tragedy victims and the unemployed in Bhopal.
Helen Walia has been in the export business for 35 years and entered the high fashion business 20 years ago primarily to give employment to women workers, adjusting timing to suit their work at home. She has spent extensive periods in the UK and USA in practical training of color co-ordinating and designing to suit the western market. Mrs. Wallia is a fashion advisor to many fashion design boutiques in India and abroad. Apart from fabric design she makes fashion accessories like designer purses, gloves, scarves, diaries, pens etc which have been sold to international clients like Marks and Spencers, Harrods, Liberty Chiching, California and the General Trading Company.
To make use of the vast built up area on the estate she owns in Bhopal, a unit was set up primarily to give employment to women and to promote crushed fabric, which is an ancient art in India. However, when the Bhopal Gas Tragedy occurred in 1984 an embroidery section was added to give employment to men as well. Later she added a tailoring section so more people affected by the Gas Tragedy could be employed.
Crushing fabric is an ancient art in India and was extensively used by the nobility who had their personal artisans to process the crushing by hand. Helen’s artisans have perfected the art of crushing pure silk, metallic silk, organza, fine chiffon, and all natural fabrics thereby introducing a new concept in high fashion fabric which has an ancient Royal History, distinctive sophistication and is seeped in sensual colors - bronze, pewter, antique gold and shades of spices. These crushed fabrics are supplied to many fashion houses both in the local and international market.
Since Bhopal is a center for Ari and Zardozi work, it is easy for Helen to adapt the design to suit the export market. Exports have been made to leading stores in the USA and UK. Through the centuries Zardozi Embroidery has held a place of honor as one of the most exquisite embroideries. Gold and silver cord, pearls and colored stones are used including semi precious and precious stones to enhance the effect of the embroidery. Helen will hold exhibitions and sales of her products under the SAGE Banner.
Helen will hold exhibitions and sales of her products under the SAGE Banner.
Butterfly in blue topaz on leather
Design on silk
t-lights in a pouch
Artists at work at the camp in Bhopal
Bhopal gas tragedy victims working on the loom
Women workers creating Zardozi embroidery
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 Vimla Patil well known writer, media person, social worker, designer of fashion shows and beauty contests,
connoisseur of fine and performing arts and a distinguished member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and
Goa. Vimla finds a place among the 20 most well known women in India .
Vimla undertakes writing, events, TV script writing, interviews, internet work, food festivals, speech, script and
feature writing. She is an enthusiastic wild life activist and is a member of Tiger Watch, an NGO which fights to save tigers. She is actively engaged in the upliftment of women and holds workshops and seminars to Enhance their lives. Vimla offers her guidance and help to various NGO’s and foundations.
Being a multifaceted personality, Vimla will be a key driver for SAGE Foundation on many fronts.
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 Bela Shanghvi runs the studio Aavartan and is an honorary member of the World Craft Council.
“Pursuing a pure passion for crafts and textiles have led to connecting with craftsmen from all over the country and beyond - it is through this bond that the quality of crafts and textiles has been preserved and evolved while yet respecting all its traditions.” A relationship built on mutual trust, respect and the knowledge of their needs.
The human side is of extreme importance to Bela. She wants to work with evolution of the traditions and heritage which has taken centuries to built, with a lot of responsibility. Even in the surroundings of the craftsmen, she does not want too much to change and make them irrelevant or estranged. Hence the label revivalist precedes her work.
She loves to work with the focus on environment friendliness and ecological balance whenever possible. Especially Birth - to- Grave approach.
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 Ravi Shankar an enthusiastic young man working in the finance department of Morgan Stanley has volunteered to chip in with his business skills to give SAGE a professional edge. Ravi would like to give back to society at this young age, and has promised to rope in more youngsters with different skills sets to help SAGE wherever they are needed.
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 Reena Sheth is our strategic partner for jewellery design.
She specializes in designing semi precious ethnic& fusion jewellery.
The sales proceeds of the jewelry will go towards the education of the village and slum children. This exquisite jewelry can be purchased online. A growing number of happy clients are buying SAGE jewelry, secure in the knowledge that not only are they buying a quality product but are also helping to educate a child.
She uses the best quality raw material which is usually semi precious stones such as topaz (blue, golden), ruby, turquoise, opal, onyx, jade, coral, rose quartz etc., which are sourced from Jaipur (city of colour stones). All her sets are cast in sterling silver with some amount of gold used to avoid tarnishing. The diamonds used are either American (best quality) or Jaipur uncut & semi cut variety. She has about 4-5 “Kari gars” under her who do bead (threading) work & specialize in casting & setting of jewellery. This is done in real diamond jewellery by “Bengali babus”, who do it from generations & are specialized in the art of setting diamond jewellery. She gets her semi precious jewellery cast by these specialists, hence giving a real look & touch even to the semi precious variety.
As a strategic partner of the SAGE Foundation, she will try her best to provide employment to these “kari gars” in order to encourage them to educate their children & not put them to work at a tender age, so that they can be moulded just like the jewellery!
  
  
 
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SAGE School of Creative Crafts
 Renu Kapoor’s dream since the last five years is to set up a School of Creative Crafts .She contends that Indian Crafts are one of India’s biggest untapped and unexploited resource!.she believes that Indian Crafts …poised to be the next new industry! The School of Creative crafts will fulfill the need of professionally trained man power .
She has conducted several trial runs and researched extensively on the subject . The dream was finally captured onto a Power point presentation and translated into a 44 page business plan. “Meeting Ms Maya Shahani was providential, it was almost like the Secret was working ” she says for Maya immediately understood my vision and I have happily handed over my concept to Sage Foundation to take it further .
Ms. Renu Kapoor is a Project consultant to the Modern Group and Nalini of Nalini and Yasmin business of Salons and academies ..She is also the Director of the Indian Institute of Jewellery,
A Chartered Accountant by profession, she has been a Partner in S.M. Kapoor & Co. Chartered Accountants and has accumulated twenty-six years of experience in this field.
Simultaneously, Ms. Kapoor has dabbled in Project Conceptualization, Development, Strategy Implementation and Systems Consultancy, acquiring a special expertise in Education, Joint and Collaborative Ventures.
Some of the other educational projects that she has been instrumental in developing or consulted with are: Pinnacle Academy of Financial Intermediaries; Profesionele Consulting India Pvt. Ltd.; Bombay School of Business & Wigan and Leigh College.
Her civic affiliations so far have been Treasurer of Bombay International School and member of the Board of Governors of the school, Treasurer of the Ladies Wing of FICCI, an active member of Lok hith , Bal Asha and Paramparik Karigar.
Ms Kapoor has a vision which she single mindedly pursues: Quality education for the youth of India. Her dream is that one day students from overseas will vie to study in India.
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 Poonam V Mehta an early years educator from Hong Kong, China has devoted over forty years of her life in the field of education. Her expertise is to set up preschools, from designing of the whole school, curriculum, teacher’s training and conducting workshops for parents and teachers alike. She has authored many children’s books and designed a ‘Phonics’ programme for ESL children, which have been tried and tested by the ‘Quality Education Fund’ in Hong Kong. She is currently involved in a school project in Mumbai, India.
Mrs. Mehta strongly believes that good teaching requires more than intellect. As a parent and educator she has made a commitment to love and respect every child and give them space to grow and dream.
In addition, to her school projects, she has pledged to help under privileged children of our society as well as to leave a legacy behind of lifelong learning which will leave an impact and make a difference in every child’s life. This she feels is made possible through ‘The Sage Foundation’ She genuinely believes that her dream as an educator does not end here, it is just the beginning.
From Poonam Mehta’s Desk
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Albert Einstein
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 Pradeep Gidwani is a B.Com graduate of H.R. College of Commerce, owns & manages Gift N Decor, an event management company that specializes in designing, planning and implementing traditional Indian weddings. Through his hard work, perseverance and word-of-mouth, a very satisfied NRI customer base endorses Gift N Decor the world over. Gift N Decor provides skill training and employment to the impoverished & underprivileged. Formerly in the travel agency business, his rich experience of 13 years will ensure the total success of the upcoming SAGE Tours, Arts & Crafts.
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