SHARE, the Self Help Association for Rural Education and Employment, is proud to be an organization of women, for women, and by women.  Their crafts project reaches over 400 women basketmakers from 30 groups in the southern Indian province of Tamil Nadu. SHARE is a community-based non-profit organization established in 1992 to empower rural women through income generation projects. At the heart of SHARE’s work is the belief that economic self-reliance is an important step in the development of women and their communities.  

The work of SHARE started through the Christian Medical College in Vellore, when outreach workers realized that the health and social status of the population would not improve until women could generate income and become more financially independent.  SHARE’s work includes crafts production and other income generation projects, as well as supporting women’s leadership development, education programs, and the encouragement of women’s participation in local governing bodies.