Tailoring: A Small Business Skill for Afghan Women

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AIL’s Learning Centers were examined by the Taliban and remain open as they comply with gender segregation rules. We have instituted changes such as switching to an emphasis on post-6^th grade girls education. Of course, we continue to provide income generating skills training such as tailoring, beautician, English and computing.

One of the first classes women take at a Learning Center is sewing. This skill provides immediate financial help to a family, as the woman takes on sewing clothes for her family members. She can start up her own home sewing business, obtaining work from neighbors and friends or selling items in the market. Other students have gone on to work for clothing companies as tailors. 

A sewing course boosts the confidence of women who often arrive at a center unable to read and write and many have never had formal education beyond a few years of primary school. The students who complete the tailoring course feel empowered to go onto other learning.

Why Do AIL centers work?  This from an administrator, “The centers’ personnel have a close relationship with the local community. The personnel are invited to the elders' meetings and have been appreciated and encouraged by them. They have built a friendly relationship with the elders and the people and have made presentations about the multilateral programs to everyone, so they can direct people’s wishes and expectations.”  

AIL  Outreach 2021: 23,905 students, 18,132 PPE distributed, 6 health clinics, 50-bed Covid-19 hospital, 95,593 patient treatments, 59,888 health education, 13,050 food aid families served, 22 radio broadcasts daily, 8 hours of TV programs, 12 provinces reached.

Afghanistan has been stunned by recent developments and people are adapting as best they can, to a new situation which remains both unclear and uncertain as to the future.  AIL’s current priority is to provide urgently needed assistance to the thousands of displaced families who have flooded into Kabul and Herat. Some centers provide a staging point for aid. Our staff are all working, though offices currently are men only with women working from home. The centers are all female and await instructions from the Taliban with regard to procedures required for reopening centers to our students. We are optimistic these classes will start again very soon. A woman with skills is a woman who contributes to her family financially, which makes life better for everyone in the family. Tailoring is a skill a woman can use from the home, and doesn’t require her to be alone with strangers.  Our clinics have expanded their capacity to cope with the large numbers of refugees that are in the area.

The Yacoobi private schools are open and operating under the rules that have been given such as dividing male and female. It is exam season and students are studying hard and sitting their exams as usual. It is a great credit to them and their teachers as everyone has heightened levels of fear, stress and anxiety. The private TV and Radio Meraj are not broadcasting but awaiting instructions in how to recommence and staff are creating content and archiving materials for broadcast at a later date.

We have been touched by the outreach of support and outpouring of donations to help the Afghan people. We thank you for standing by Afghanistan as it faces another humanitarian crisis on top of Covid-19 and drought.  

Update on tailoring classes

In the first half of 2021, there were 1,634 students studying various needle craft skills including, tailoring, weaving, nut weaving, crochet and embroidery.  Graduates of these courses go on to form home businesses as well as sewing for family and friends or gain jobs in the sewing sector. This is often the first class a woman takes at a center and her success leads her to believe in her abilities so she goes on to take up literacy, Arabic and math classes too. 

Your support makes all the difference! Thank you.