Sitaara has been a journey like no other. My daughter Tarini, who has special needs, faces many challenges on a daily basis. She also has a strong drive and determination and gets bored easily. It wasn’t easy occupying her during quarantine and ensuring she remains driven and excited. When she came to me with the proposal of starting a business, I wasn’t enthusiastic at all. With my professional work along with looking after a special needs child, I had my hands truly full. But slowly, as we started giving shape to this idea of a new venture which could be purposeful and help others as well, she got me interested too, and I felt excited to help her set up this platform that could help many more children like herself.
Along the way we joined hands with Muskaan who studies in the same school as Tarini. It was not easy starting a venture. It takes a lot out of you, even if it is just setting up an Instagram page. The effort is more into making sure it is run properly and continues to interest its customers and grow.
There were times when we lost momentum and there were not many orders. We tried to create an excitement at such times through new launches and festive offers, and maybe just pop up offers once in a while. These kept us mothers also encouraged as Divya (Muskaan’s mom) and I became equally invested in this venture. There are also times when clients may be rude, dissatisfied, or hurtful, which is hard for special children to deal with. The effort is always to ensure that we can smoothen these issues with understanding with our clients. Having a happy customer at the end of the day is the biggest reward.
Sitaara has helped Tarini in so many ways – it gives her a real sense of purpose and the feeling that she achieved something at a young age (she launched Sitaara at the age of 13). It also gives her the thrill when she converts her marketing pitches into orders, when she gets repeat orders, and when her clients praise and appreciate the products and our responsiveness through their posts and reels. She contributes to helping not only special needs children but also the planet in her own way – as we have a big focus on cloth products, totes, pouches – all of which are re-usable and take us a step away from plastic. All the packaging used for orders is completely recycled – old Myntra and Amazon packets come in good use.
Going forward I hope that Tarini and Muskaan can help more and more children through this venture such that we create impacts from sheer scale. But even riding up to that level has been one hell of an exhilarating journey, one in which we are truly grateful to each and every person who supports us.”Sitaara by Tarini and Muskaan”: A platform dedicated to allowing children with special needs to showcase their crafts and creations to the world, especially those made out of waste or recycled materials. Started and managed by Tarini Kashyap, 15 years, and Muskaan, 16 years, both children with special needs, “Sitaara” means star, or starlight, and the name simply implies that all children with special needs are special like stars. Children that collaborate on Sitaara can send us pictures of their work, which we upload. When there is a sale, we arrange to collect and deliver the products.
Follow and support, and collaborate with us @sitaaracrafts (https://www.instagram.com/sitaaracrafts/?utm_medium=copy_link)
