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Afghanistan: women play a key role in improving lives
Women are playing an important part in helping their fellow Afghans overcome decades of conflict, while trying to create new opportunities and improved services in the country. A series of portraits focuses on the women trying to put the country back on its feet.
Afghanistan – gaining new skills
In cooperation with the ICRC, the Afghan Red Crescent Society set up its vocational training programme (VTP) in 1997 and it is now being implemented across most provinces.
The programme provides destitute and vulnerable individuals with skills such as carpentry, tailoring, tinsmithing and embroidery to enable them to support their families. It also helps them to become self-sufficient and to make a full return to society.
"I lost my father and elder brother in the fighting in Kabul," says 18-year-old Palwasha. "I am the only person left to provide food for my nine-member family."
Palwasha comes from a very poor family and lives in the Qargha district, west of Kabul. She learned about the VTP programme from her neighbours and enrolled in a nine-month tailoring course.
"I have been very lucky and have learnt a lot. I feel proud," she says. "Now, I am able to work independently. My training will be completed soon."
Palwasha expects to be busy once she sets up her own business. "I will make up to two or three dresses per week, and this will enable me to support my family," she says.
"Palwasha is one of my best trainees," said Suhaila, who teaches tailoring to a group of nine girls in her house in the west of Kabul. "This is the third batch of students I have taught over the last two years. All of them have their own shops now," she adds.
Once her business is up and running, Palwasha is thinking of taking on students of her own.
Currently, around 500 trainees are following some 20 different courses in the framework of the VTP: tailoring, tinsmith, carpentry, weaving, embroidery, radio repair and so on.
The courses are led by 218 skilled ARCS artisans all over Kabul. Other courses are conducted outside the capital. The ARCS provides each trainee with a monthly stipend of 50 kilos of rice or wheat flour during their apprenticeship. Trainers get between 75 and 100 kilos of flour.
After graduation, the beneficiaries receive certificates and the basic tools needed for carrying on their trade.
