Local women connect with White Rainbow Project to benefit widows

While Fallbrook Women's Connection offers programs to improve the lives of area women (including those on Camp Pendleton), it also aids efforts being made in other parts of the world. The group's Sept. 16 program featured a fashion show put on by White Rainbow Project, a nonprofit started by Bonsall resident Linda Mandrayer.

In a practice run for White Rainbow Project's fundraiser, the Designer Sari Challenge 2016 fashion show, Marine wives modeled ball gowns made for them from sarees that came from India. This is part of the White Rainbow Project’s mission to help the widows over there who are outcasts with no means to support themselves. In India, widowed women are considered cursed and dishonored so they are abandoned, Mandrayer explained to the audience.

Her organization takes the sarees that are donated by upper class women in India and sells them to raise money for the widows she said. Volunteers also help the widows to earn a living by teaching them how to make scarves, bracelets, necklaces, gift bags and jewelry from old sarees and other items that they recycle to be sold over here.

This is the third year that the Designer Sari Challenge has been held. Area women interested in design, some of whom are students at Palomar College, volunteer to take donated sarees and design dresses with the sarees as their inspiration and material.

This year the dresses are gowns that are being made for the Marine Corps ball. The Marine wives will wear them for another fashion show later this month, White Rainbow Project's big annual fundraiser.

According to the organization’s website, “monies from this event are used all year to support and empower marginalized women in northern and southern India by teaching them sustainable life skills as well as provide respite and hope”.

Two of the models wore traditional sarees as their gowns were not far enough along to wear them on Sept. 16. The public can vote for their favorite gown by donating money or buying the goods made by the widows and designating their votes for a specific dress. This can be done by visiting www.whiterainbowproject.org where there is also more information about the upcoming fundraising event in Carlsbad.

The ladies will get to keep their gowns after the Marine Corps ball in November and the designer of the winning gown will get a trip to India or $1,000.

To learn more about the White Rainbow Project and its work in India, visit www.whiterainbowproject.org and whiterainbow.com.