Afghanistan: At the Bazaar-e-Zanana, Kabul |
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November 7th, 2006 - 03:15PM |
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Photo: Anne Richard/The IRC I visit the Bazaar-e-Zanana, a shopping area in Kabul for women-run businesses and their female customers. The International Rescue Committee has a program to match apprentices with some of the skilled women who run shops. In a seamstress shop, Seema is a widow who has been given an apprenticeship and now has a way to earn an income. Further along there is a clothing store managed by two sisters. They used to work for meager wages in a Pakistan factory but now support their entire family and have taken on an apprentice. One shop owner, Alia, is a skilled woodworker. The shelves in her shop are filled with beautiful carved wooden boxes and small statues. She proudly shows me a photo of herself with another American visitor -- First Lady Laura Bush. Nasreen, the apprentice at Orzo’s beauty shop, is learning to cut hair. Nasreen’s face is disfigured by a rocket attack. One hardly notices because the atmosphere in the shop is busy and friendly. Everyone seems to know my colleague, Laila, a formidable woman who has worked for IRC for many years. Programs to teach women skills and put them to work are in other cities, too. My IRC colleagues are not sure how long this one in Kabul can continue to be funded. It is very clear that everyone – shoppers, storeowners, apprentices are benefiting from this simple approach in which Afghan women help other women. Next: Visiting a Village for Returned Refugees, Jalalabad > IRC vice president Anne Richard was in Afghanistan in late October to visit IRC programs and discuss the situation there with IRC staff in Kabul, Jalalabad, and rural Logar Province. Posted By: Anne Richard | Asia, Diaries & Journals, Women Permalink |
