Our project will establish five community-based vocational training centers in Afghanistan where we will provide education in basic literacy, simple numeration, basic hygiene, and peace-building, and deliver practical skills of tailoring to 120 widows and orphans in Afghanistan over the next seven months. Our main goal of the project is to deliver financial self-sustainability to the targeted population of women which will, in turn, provide food and education to their children at home.
42% of Afghanistan is chronically poor, which is approximately 12.6 million people. Among the poorest are widows and orphans, the product of decades of war. The average age of an Afghan widow is 35 and 94% are illiterate, persons who otherwise are in the prime of life. Roughly 90% have children. A recent study of 50,000 widows in Kabul, the nation's capital, found that 65% saw suicide as the only option to escape their misery.
We are dedicated to teaching these Afghan widowed mothers and female orphans to read/write, numeration, and basic hygiene, train them with sewing and tailoring skills through a community-based model which we have proven its effectiveness for the last ten years. Upon graduation, we will provide a brand new sewing machine and a tailoring kit to all students to help and encourage to start a tailoring business at home immediately upon the graduation.
This project will provide 120 widows and orphans with the tools to enhance their vocational skills, personal confidence, and opportunity to become self-supporting and self-reliant via a business they can run from their home. Graduates can either be hired by local tailors or own tailoring business that not only eliminates the need to beg or rely primarily on family members for support but also enable them to feed their family and send their children to school.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
