In 1995, Russ Foundation built three Training Workshops for local people. One workshop was for training in the skills of weaving, whilst the other two workshops were for the development of skills in sewing and tailoring. In recent years a workshop for training in Batik has been opened.

These workshops help people from the local community to develop skills and competencies that will help them secure employment. An integrated aim is to restore the traditional caste-skill of weaving to adults in the community. The Thevar caste has in recent years been disempowered by the textile mills and factories in the area. The trainees in these workshop are local young women, pregnant or nursing mothers. The main employment in the local area is agricultural, but such work is difficult for women who are nursing young children. They face the choice of forfeiting their income by staying at home to care for the children, or forfeiting the education of their older children by shifting child-care responsibilities to them. Both choices bring the risk of worsening poverty.

Russ Foundation offers the alternative of craft employment for these women. Whilst engaged in training and employment in the craft workshops, the mothers can leave their young children in the purpose-built crèche (balwadi) near to the workshops. Here the children are well-looked after and, with the aid of trained staff, can begin their education. Products from the workshops - such as handloom towels and batik cloths - are sold locally and this helps generate income.