By Mitch Holt, Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday volunteers from Eternal Threads, an organization that provides clothing to thousands of women in Southeast India, sat in the Campus Center to give ACU students the chance to help them in their cause.

Linda Egle, founder of Eternal Threads, has traveled throughout Texas for the past twenty years and travels back and forth between Southeast India and the United States to raise money for the organization.

“The women of India don’t wear western wear like we do,” said Sue Garcia, Eternal Threads volunteer. “If we ship a bunch of it over there, they’re not going to wear it.”

Because of the cultural clothing differences, Eternal Threads raises money in the United States and then buys saris from an arranged business in India.

Most of the women in this area have only one sari to wear, Garcia said. To keep their garments clean, the women frequently go down to the river to wash their saris. They must do this almost every day in order to have something clean to wear.

Garcia said because of Egle’s passion for raising money for saris, thousands of women of India have been clothed.

The fund-raising campaign provided students with the chance to help the women of Southeast India, an area greatly affected by the recent tsunamis. The money raised during the week will be sent with Egle when she leaves on her six-week trip to the area and will be used to purchase saris for the deprived women, Garcia said.

Because of the tsunami and the condition of the people of India, Egle’s partner has negotiated for the price of $2.75 per sari. The price was formerly $4 but has been reduced in order to make it easier to help the women of India.

Eternal Threads hopes the week of raising money on the ACU campus will open the eyes of students to the devastation and poverty in other areas of the world, Garcia said.

“Don’t worry if you didn’t have a chance to give this week,” she said. “We will be back on campus in the near future doing the same thing.”