Debbie talks about English language & literacy (2:34)

When I’ve got somebody that’s first starting out on a particular design, whether it be a cushion cover or they learn to make a skirt, well repetition and just doing quite a number of them to begin with so that they actually feel confident, being on the floor with them and making sure that you’re always available to them because you can sit down and spend – they can make a couple of cushions or covers, a couple of skirts, and still they’ll just get stuck on a particular thing.  So the fact that you’re always there for them to ask a question.  You don’t get cross with them.  And if they make a mistake it’s like, “Okay, we’ve made a mistake.  Doesn’t matter.  Put that one aside and we’ll start again”, you know?  It’s – it’s just making them feel just really comfortable and just – just helping to build up their confidence and – and the fact that, okay, you can’t speak English, that doesn’t matter – not speak English, sorry, you can’t read English, that doesn’t matter.  I’m here, I can show you and we can just sit down and – and just take our time and step by step and if you make a mistake on that one throw it away and start another one.  It’s no big deal.  We do actually have one of the ladies, my predecessor, actually put a lot of work into doing a booklet on explaining, with pictures and very simple text, actually how to make a lot of the things that the ladies sew here, for example Zippy bags, tablecloths, cushion covers, curtains and a number of other things.  And that is great.  I notice that the ladies do get these folders out and do look through the pictures. But again, because a lot of the ladies can’t read or write English, they can look at the pictures but the actual text doesn’t mean anything.  And so at the end of the day, you know, just demonstration, hands on and just a lot of hands on.  And don’t sort of encourage them to go to another thing until they really understand what they’re doing, and they can do it actually on their own without being supported, and then we move to a different design.  And that’s what I have found works here.  These ladies don’t actually speak or understand English.