Bringing Stitch with SACSS to Life, One Brushstroke at a Time

In July 2023, SACSS launched Stitch with SACSS, a program designed to empower immigrant women by teaching them sewing skills and creating opportunities to work from home. The program equips women with a trade skill they can use to pursue financial independence. After completing the training, each woman receives a sewing machine to use at home and an opportunity to start her own sewing business.

Everyone who walks through the doors of SACSS is often moved by the impact of Stitch with SACSS. When Vaidehi Kinkhabwala, a New York City-based painter and printmaker, visited SACSS, the program left a lasting impression. As an artist, she was drawn to the women in the program, their stories, and the sense of confidence and possibility being built through each class. She decided to dedicate a painting to Stitch with SACSS.

At the center of the painting is Amina, a young immigrant Bangladeshi mother, sewing during her Stitch with SACSS class. Kinkhabwala was drawn to Amina’s warmth, quiet strength, and optimism. While Amina is the emotional anchor of the painting, the women in the background are equally important. They represent the larger Stitch with SACSS community, women learning new skills, supporting one another, and building more independent futures.

The painting begins with Amina but expands into a collective story. The lines between portrait and community become blurred as the women around her become part of the same story of resilience, dignity, and opportunity.

Kinkhabwala intentionally placed the sewing machine at the center of the composition. For her, it represents more than the skill being taught in the classroom. It represents opportunity, independence, and the futures these women are working to create.

“Every painting begins with listening. Before I think about composition, color or even making sketches, I spend time understanding the person and the story I am trying to tell. When I saw Amina, I knew I didn’t want to make a documentary painting. I wanted to create something that felt timeless and symbolic; that’s why the sewing machine sits at the center of the composition.”

Through the painting, Kinkhabwala hopes audiences see a woman creating a future with her own hands and, in doing so, recognize the countless women around us who work quietly and help hold their communities together.

Her time with Stitch at SACSS showed her more than women learning to sew. She saw confidence, opportunity, and economic independence being built. That understanding is reflected in the painting, with Amina at its center and the wider community of women surrounding her.

“Amina is the emotional anchor of the composition but the women in the background are equally important, they represent the larger community of Stitch with SACSS and the women who are learning new skills, supporting one another and building more independent futures.”

The painting was unveiled to Amina and the Stitch with SACSS class during their graduation celebration, where the women were ecstatic to see themselves and their experiences represented in the artwork. Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Faiza Ali, who joined the celebration as a guest, was also deeply impressed by the painting and its reflection of the women’s journey through the program.

The painting will be a part of the silent auction that starts on September 21, 2026, with proceeds supporting SACSS and its work to empower underserved communities.