Tailoring: A Small Business Skill for Afghan Women

Women need skills that help them care for their families. Sewing is one such skill enabling them to make clothes for all their family members. Many women then go on to make clothes for others forming home businesses.

The women gain more than a skill, they gain self-confidence and a belief in their own capacity to learn. This leads them to try other classes at centers and to be more proactive in their communities, advocating for themselves.  AIL also offers carpet weaving, embroidery and nut weaving all of which are traditional Afghan crafts.

In June, there were 975 sewing students at AIL Learning Centers across 11 provinces of Afghanistan.

Thank you for supporting Afghan women.

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Learning to sew changes a woman’s life giving her independence, self-confidence and self-esteem as well as an income generating skill.

So far in 2023:  1,034 students have learning sewing at Herat centers and another 240 at Kabul centers.

Sewing is often the first class women take at a center. They gain confidence in themselves and their ability to learn from this class and go on to take classes in literacy, maths, Arabic and even English and computing.   Students often say how much learning means to them and how, before coming to the center ,they had never had educational opportunities.

One student said, " I did not know I could learn before this class. Now I can make clothes for my family and also for others which brings in money. I am now doing literacy class to help me at home and with my business. I want to help the children with their homework too."

Thank you for supporting Afghan women.