HEMEFund plans to start 7 vocational training centers to provide free sewing training to 320 Afghan widowed mothers and orphaned girls who are the poorest and the least protected populations in Afghanistan and help them start home tailoring businesses to become self-supportive by providing them free tailoring business startup kits.
Forty years of war and armed conflicts in Afghanistan left 2 million widows and over 2 million orphans. Most of them are uneducated and unable to provide for themselves. Children wander around garbage cans, collecting leftovers, plastics, and papers to burn at home for cooking. Widowed mothers are unable to send their children to school and provide meals to their families. Most of these women are illiterate and have no practical skills to generate income.
HEMEFund provides sewing training to widowed mothers, orphaned girls, and women in chronic poverty. Upon graduation, students receive tailoring business startup kits which include sewing machines, scissors, rulers, marketing signboards, and more, and are encouraged to start a home-based tailoring business. Over 90% of graduates complete the training and most of them generate income from $20-60 to over $200 a month. This enables them to feed their families and send children to school.
As of July 2020, HEMEFund graduated 789 women and helped 3,276 children. HEMEFund plans to establish training centers in all 34 provinces. Below is one of many success stories. Zainab is 18. She is a graduate of our sewing center in Kabul. Father passed away years ago. Mother weaves carpets and makes $30 in three months. This was not enough for the family. Zainab started a home tailoring business and worked hard. She now makes $60 a month. Mother is very proud of Zainab.
