{"id":234,"date":"2011-10-05T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T13:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyoteblog.posterous.com\/another-afghanistan-handicraft-program-really"},"modified":"2016-07-26T13:30:45","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T20:30:45","slug":"another-afghanistan-handicraft-program-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/10\/another-afghanistan-handicraft-program-really\/","title":{"rendered":"*Another* Afghanistan Handicraft program? Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I got an email from yet another organization that is teaching Afghan women how to make handicrafts and textiles to sell in the West.<\/p>\n<p>And I sighed. Heavily.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying that these are bad programs. In fact, I have supported many of them, as a consumer: My husband and I each have a lovely Shalwar Kameez from a shop run by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afghansforcivilsociety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Afghans for Civil Society<\/a> in Kandahar (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jaynecravens\/2061793241\/\" target=\"_blank\">here&#8217;s him in his; I&#8217;m in the burqa<\/a>), I have a custom-made jacket from AWWSOM Boutique in Kabul that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jaynecravens\/3080624826\/in\/set-72157602473075495\" target=\"_blank\">I wore at my wedding reception<\/a>, I have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jaynecravens\/1115860218\/in\/set-72157601141863721\/\" target=\"_blank\">custom-made purse<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gundara.com\" target=\"_blank\">Gundara<\/a>, and I have lots of items from Ganjini Showroom and various other stores in Kabul. These items are beautiful, they are well-made, and I love showing them off (for more info, see my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/travel\/afghanistan\/kabulshopping.html\" target=\"_blank\">guide to shopping in Kabul<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>HOWEVER, teaching more and more Afghan women how to make purses, shawls, table cloths and other lovely items is <em>not<\/em> going to lift women out of poverty, nor move them into their proper place in society, because there is not enough of a market for all those products.<\/p>\n<p>Capacity-building programs have to be focused on what is actually needed in a particular community, that are more guaranteed to provide income regularly, long-term. That means programs that teach Afghan women how to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/propagandistmag.com\/2011\/03\/25\/manufacturing-hope-afghan-woman-entrepreneur-brings-jobs-and-change-women-farmers\" target=\"_blank\">raise plants that produce fruit, vegetables, roots, grains, nuts, leaves or sap<\/a> that can be sold to other Afghans, or exported for sale to Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, India or any other adjacent or nearby country<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/71877\/kapisa-womens-leaders-propose-new-plan#.ToxrcU95aJ4\" target=\"_blank\">make preservatives of fruit, veggies, grains or other agricultural products<\/a> that can be sold to other Afghans, or exported for sale to Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, India or any other adjacent or nearby country<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.isaf.nato.int\/article\/isaf-releases\/training-equips-afghan-women-to-use-poultry-as-income-source.html\" target=\"_blank\">raise chickens<\/a>, goats, cows, ostriches, sheep or any other animal for its milk, meat or skin<\/li>\n<li>open and run a small grocery, gas station, copy center, Internet cafe or other much-needed, much-wanted business in the country<\/li>\n<li>create women-friendly, family-friendly, culturally-appropriate, affordable <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/travel\/advice4hotels.html\" target=\"_blank\">overnight accommodations<\/a><\/li>\n<li>be midwives<\/li>\n<li>be nurses or doctors or clinic managers<\/li>\n<li>be veterinarians, or vet techs<\/li>\n<li>be elementary or secondary school teachers<\/li>\n<li>be university professors<\/li>\n<li>be accountants<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.state.gov\/index.php\/site\/entry\/inl_police_women_afghanistan\" target=\"_blank\">be police officers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jaynecravens\/6170090220\/in\/photostream\" target=\"_blank\">make soccer balls<\/a><\/li>\n<li>engage in any of the procurement or logistics activities needed to sustain any of the above<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are things that local people need, and\/or that they want &#8211; they are not just that are nice to have.<\/p>\n<p>If you know of a program &#8211; local or international, government-run or foreign run or civil society run, whatever &#8211; that is teaching Afghan women to engage in income-generation activities that are practical and sustainable, feel free to post names and links in the comments section of this blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I got an email from yet another organization that is teaching Afghan women how to make handicrafts and textiles to sell in the West. And I sighed. Heavily. I&#8217;m not saying that these are bad programs. In fact, I have supported many of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[36,37,44,66,72,150,177,178,179,180,255,471,472,519,540],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonprofitngoagency-management","tag-afghan","tag-afghanistan","tag-aid","tag-bpeace","tag-business","tag-development","tag-enterprise","tag-enterprises","tag-entrepreneur","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-income","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainable","tag-usaid","tag-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-3M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2173,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/2173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}