- Anna’s Learning Center (www.anna-awec-af.org) in collaboration with Beshtar (www.beshtar.com)
- Private Cooperative in Kabul in collaboration with Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women, Peace through Business Program (www.ieew.org)
Click HERE to watch story about Anna Hacker on CBS Evening News. Anna is a 67-year-old woman who hopes her school will give poor Afghani street children a better shot at life.
Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women, Peace through Business Program (www.ieew.org)
Knitting Income Sustains Afghan Families
Two very inspiring stories about young women who knit to earn money to support their families. These women, and many others like them, are knitting booties for the Gendercide Awareness Project.
Aziz knits to educate her three sisters.
Aziz is a 19 year old girl who has never been to school because when she was four the Taliban took power in Kabul Afghanistan. Aziza was nine when she approached a woman to learn how to knit and started working for this woman’s knitting association. It has been ten years since she learned to knit and now she earns money and contributes to her family of seven members. Her father works for a governmental office earning around $150 a month. Aziz never went to school so she could support her three sisters and allow them to attend school and get an education. Her mother is also an uneducated woman. Aziz’s family stayed in Afghanistan, even during the Taliban years, as they were not able to afford to leave the country. Aziz loves to knit various items like sweaters, baby booties, and baby wears. She also teaches her sisters to knit as it is a good skill to learn.
Hajera knits to support her disabled brother and his six children.
Hajera is a 50 year old woman who never married. She lives with her older brother who has six children. Her brother cannot work any more, and his wife is uneducated and unskilled. So, Hajera is the only one who earns money by knitting and supports her brother’s children and family by providing food. Hajera never left the country, even during the Taliban years, as she could not afford to pay for the travel by road. She could study only up to a high school level but the family couldn’t afford to send her to University. “When you are unmarried in Afghanistan then the brother and brother’s wife think you are a burden and you should earn to pay for your living costs” Hajera says.
Aziz, Hajera, and Soraya developed their business enterprise through the Institute for the Economic Empowerment of Women, www.ieew.org, headquarted in Oklahoma City, OK. IEEW trains businesswomen in the U.S. and overseas. Our baby booties from Afghanistan were produced through its international arm, called PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS®. PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS is a business training and mentorship program for women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Rwanda. This program is implemented through three major components (In-Country Education, Leadership Development, and Train the Trainer) which combine to create a continuing program to educate women, promote their business and leadership skills, build a strong public policy agenda in the women’s business community and to help build stable democracies.
The woman who has provided this opportunity to these poor laborers is Soraya Faizi. Click HERE to see her facebook page.
Manizha is an extremely articulate advocate for women’s rights in Afghanistan. She runs a fashion business called Wonderland Women (website under construction), which provides jobs for many in her community. She also works with two ministries of the Afghan government, steering them toward compliance with regulations that require female participation at all levels, particularly decision-making levels. Lastly, she serves on the Executive Board of the Afghan Women’s Network, the largest women’s advocacy group in Afghanistan. Manizha recruited a cooperative called Omid Handicrafts to make baby booties for us.
Manizha describes the poverty of the five women who made the baby booties. Some of them are the only breadwinners in their families, as the men were disabled in all the fighting. With the money earned from knitting baby booties, each woman was able to feed her family a meager diet of rice, bread, and vegetables for a month.
Manizha came to Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Chicago for business training with the Peace Through Business Program of the Institute for the Economic Empowerment of Women, a nonprofit based in Oklahoma City. She expressed deep gratitude for all she has learned.
Widow and Women’s Advocate Sorya Faizi Supports Her Three Children and Teaches Other Women to Earn a Living Through Knitting
Soraya Faizi, 59 years old has been managing the Afghan Women’s knitting Association for 8 years now. She was married at age 16 and she had to leave her school when she became pregnant. She had three children by age 26, when her husband died. She knew how to knit as she had learned from her mother when she was a child. She is grateful for knowing the skill and being able to earn income through her baby clothing business knitting business. When Soraya’s children became school age, she could afford nothing more than an orphanage schooling system.
She left Afghanistan with her children during the Taliban years. When Afghanistan’s situation improved in 2002, she returned in 2003. The community where she used to live was very poor, consisting of former government employees. She started teaching young girls to knit and created an association in order to get bigger orders, helping everyone involved to earn a living. Aziza, Sahar, and her sister Beheshta are very grateful to her. The most recent shipment of baby booties sent to the Gendercide Awareness Project were knitted by Soraya, Aziza, Sahar, and Beheshta.
Soraya has always been a vocal advocate for women’s rights. We are so proud to have baby booties from this remarkable woman and her equally remarkable young colleagues!
Two Sisters in Afghanistan Support a Family of Ten
Sahar, 20 years old and shown on the right, graduated from high school and is the oldest of 8 children in her family. In her family her father used to be the only breadwinner, but it has been more than 5 years since he lost his eye sight.
Sahar was only 9 when she learned knitting and started earning money through knitting. She taught her younger sister Beheshta, at left, to help her finish orders. Beheshta is 13 and in 8th grade in school.
Due to the family’s inability to afford Sahar’s university education, Sahar couldn’t continue her studies at the university. She says “I wanted to study economics, and it was my dream to be able to help my family and my community through my education and a better profession.” She thinks if a girl studies at the university, she can become independent and can stand on her own feet.
With their knitting income, Sahar and Beheshta pay for the family’s expenses, including their siblings’ clothing, school books, notebooks, and pens.