Sewing Up Community Welfare

Name: Sewing Up Community Welfare
Uploaded: 2021-04-07T02:43:35Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Elsa Maharrani is empowering women, including housewives, in Padang, West Sumatra, so they can earn their own income.

Elsa Maharrani is empowering women, including housewives, in Padang, West Sumatra, so they can earn their own income.

Yola Sastra

· 5 minutes read

Being an entrepreneur is not just a matter of profit-making but also an effort to promote the economy of the local community. Adhering to this principle, Elsa Maharrani is empowering women, including housewives, in Padang, West Sumatra, so they can earn their own income.

Her success as an online reseller and distributor of various brands of Muslim wear since 2016 brought no satisfaction to Elsa. She noticed what she was doing still had no impact on people in the vicinity.

So, she ventured to produce Muslim garments under her own brand name, Maharrani Hijab, in 2018. While profitable, she also hoped her business could be a source of fortune for other people.

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At the end of the year, Elsa collaborated with students from the Fashion Designing Study Program of Padang State University in pattern creation, cloth cutting and garment sewing. Then she sought to cooperate with local sewers around her home in Pasar Ambacang subdistrict, Kuranji district, Padang city.

However, the effort was not simple. The pay for sewers in Padang was relatively high. They charged Rp100,000-Rp150,000 per piece of clothing. In fact, Elsa could only offer Rp25,000 per piece to ensure her continued orders. Besides, the work was simpler as they would only sew already cut cloth patterns and the dress materials were made available by Elsa.

Our partnership has run smoothly. She has been sewing for us up to now.

Elsa’s offer was rejected. Yet she finally found a partner who met her criteria, a seamstress who had once worked with a garment factory in Jakarta and was unemployed at the time. “Our partnership has run smoothly. She has been sewing for us up to now. Her neighbors have also followed suit. Eventually, our partners have increased in number from only one at first to thirty people today,” said Elsa in her house near the city’s outskirts on Tuesday noon (23/3/2021).

Eighty percent of Elsa’s partners are women. Most of them have just been able to sew. “Some were in the beginning only clumsily handling sewing machines and now they are already capable of sewing garments,” said Elsa.

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The beginners have learned sewing from neighbors. Elsa corrects what they have sewn so as to conform to the standards she has laid down.

That noon, Elsa monitored the preproduction process by the Maharrani Hijab team at the workshop beside her house. Two men were measuring cloths to make patterns. A woman was arranging cut patterns and another woman was sewing.

Elsa described the process of sewing by partners, taking place in their respective homes, whereas preproduction activities like pattern making and cutting as well as postproduction work and packaging are carried out in Elsa’s house and workshop.

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Maharrani Hijab produces gamis (chemise), koko (pajama-like garment), mukena (prayer garb), jilbab (head covering), official uniforms and face masks. In the garment category, Elsa can produce 1,500 to 2,000 pieces of clothing per month.

Social enterprise

According to Elsa, if it’s a mere matter of business, she can actually use the service of sewers in readymade clothing centers in other regions like Bandung, West Java, where they get far lower pay than those in Padang. Nonetheless, Elsa has chosen to combine business with community empowerment.

Why should the garments be produced in Padang?

In Padang, she spends around Rp45,000 on the production cost of chemise per piece, while in Bandung the cost is only Rp30,000-Rp35,000 per piece. Elsa only needs to send cloths. The cost of other materials like threads, zippers and buttons is borne them.

“Why should the garments be produced in Padang? (It’s because) the GDP (gross domestic product) of West Sumatra, including Padang, is relatively low compared with other regions. West Sumatra buys everything from Java. Cloth production and sewing are in Java, only garments are brought to Padang. If everything is shifted to Java, money won’t be circulating in Padang,” Elsa pointed out.

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Flowing fortune

With this reasoning, Elsa strives to enable the flow of money from the middle class to the lower economic group in Padang. At present, Elsa spends Rp30 million-Rp50 million monthly to pay 30 sewers who mostly are her neighbors and residents in Pasar Ambacang subdistrict. The rest come from several locations in Padang city.

These partners use their own sewing machines. But for those who don’t possess the machines or need replacements, Maharrani Hijab lends them its machines or helps them buy ones on a credit basis without interest.

The Covid-19 pandemic haunting most entrepreneurs just offers a good chance to Elsa and her partners. The online sales of Maharrani Hijab products have been multiplying.

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The number of her partners has also significantly increased to meet market demand. “The Covid-19 pandemic just has a positive impact on Maharrani Hijab. During the pandemic people don’t shop at malls but they turn to the online method. Online sales have tripled, starting from June-July 2020. Since then, our sales have continued to rise,” said Elsa.

In its production, Maharrani Hijab has not been disturbed either. When other companies had to lock down as a result of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), Elsa’s enterprise kept producing, because the sewing process took place in her partners’ homes.

The fortune during the pandemic has also been flowing to her partners. They can earn fair amounts of income, ranging from Rp 1.5 million to Rp 4 million per month.