PAL’s concept and assistance in improving tailoring handicraft sector in Afghanistan

PAL’s concept and assistance in improving tailoring handicraft sector in Afghanistan

Introduction

Despite the widespread availability of traditional tailors in rural areas women in rural areas don’t have access to new and professional design of cloths. Tailoring in Afghanistan have very long history, the skills of tailoring is transferred through mother to daughter and so on. Keeping these all in one hand a big amount of money is spending each year for clothing which has direct impact on their economy, direct impact on those parts of the population which basically don’t have any income because of gender restriction in Afghanistan. Gender restriction put far away women in Afghanistan from new design and professional sewing but also not let them to search for raw material in the markets. Young girls are eager to learn tailoring skill because of house job and restriction on open job in the cities.

The PAL

PAL is 6 years EC funded project (2004-2009) in Eastern Afghanistan, partnered with the MRRD and managed by GTZ International Services.

PAL assisted and facilitated the process of participatory development planning on CDC, Cluster CDC (CDCC) at district level to respond tailor made to the needs and requirements of tailoring communities based on their proposals submitted to PAL.

More than 10% of the proposals submitted to SM-AL by CCDCs that requested assistance in the field of tailoring from 20 districts of Nangarhar, Laghman and Kunar provinces.

PAL’s assistance is to assist those who try to help themselves and are committed to the development of their own living conditions. Thus, self-contribution and performance of the potential beneficiaries are required.

PAL’s Concept Regarding Tailoring

Poverty remains widespread in Afghanistan’s struggling economy. Refugees have returned back to homeland and found their livelihoods destroyed. Widows are especially vulnerable to unemployment and poverty.

PAL’s assistance is always demanding driven based on participatory, bottom up planning with CDC’s. Through this planning process CDC’s requested assistance for upgrading the knowledge of women in the field of tailoring. In order to help widows and other women who would like to learn a skill that they can use to support themselves and their children. PAL began tailoring classes, which now serve over 720 women in Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman provinces. These classes teach women to sew a wide variety of clothing from patterns.

PAL’s strategy of implementing projects is to provide vocational training on tailoring production to eligible and interested women in rural areas through competent training institutes and NGOs in the field of tailoring that was ZARDOZI (A long term established Afghan NGO).

The tailoring training provided by PAL’s assistance, comprises of different modules depending upon the Knowledge level of the trainees. The aim is to provide basic knowledge about tailoring to the interested and legible women in the community, in this way they can save their money by sewing their family cloths in the homes.

Concerning marketing on one hand the well established NGO and PAL implementing partner ZARDOZI offers already recognized highly professional outlets and on the other hand saleswomen were trained to add, develop and identify additional opportunities for selling tailoring products.

Achievements

Through a tailoring class in Nangrahar, Kunar and Laghman Provinces, 720 women will learn to compute their families’ budget for clothes and savings from making their own clothes.

Assistance in training

PAL conducted tailoring training programs for 720 women from Nangahar, Laghman and Kunar Provinces to those who were interested and have capability in the field of tailoring.

The training module for 720 women consist of theoretical training, practical training, visits to national market, refresh training and provide all necessary tools in the field of tailoring.

PAL responds to the CCDC’s proposals and conducts a number of tailoring trainings in different districts in the eastern region:

Assistance in value chain development

Details of home producers

The home producers are sequestered, rural women whose movements are usually restricted to their own compounds and to some parts of their home village. Very many are returnees from Pakistan either recently or in the past decades. The majority of them are illiterate, although some have a little schooling from Pakistan. Most of the women have never had any formal trainings in tailoring. Instead they have picked up their skills from family and friends. Since traditions in tailoring vary between tribes and local cultures.

Development of home producers

The home producers have developed during the project period. Their skills have greatly improved. According to schedule they have learned to manage their time and finish their work and now they have a more realistic attitude towards the level of commitment which is needed in order to earn a living from sewing their own cloths. Now that they are earning an income, it is expected that their status in the family would have improved, however there has not been the resources to investigate this beyond anecdotal evidence. The women when asked are proud of their work and they report that the new earning status brings them more respect in the family.

        

SUMMARY

PAL in cooperation with its implementing partner ZARDOZI has achieved that

1.)    More than 720 women are trained in upgrading skills and quality of tailoring in Eastern Afghanistan. These women will forward their knowledge within their families.

2.)    Women from Eastern Afghanistan are producing tailoring products for their family members and they save that money which were spent on sewing of cloths.

The groundswell of interest, which has been generated by this project will be nurtured by ZARDOZI and with the further assistance of GTZ PAL, will lead in time to a revitalization of the tailoring sub-sector in this part of the eastern region.

DISCLAIMER

This article has been produced with the assistance of European Union and GTZ IS. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author and in no way can be taken to reflect the views of the European Union or GTZ IS.

The Project for Alternative Livelihoods in Eastern Afghanistan (PAL) is located in Jalalabad and funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented b