Tailoring: A Small Business Skill for Afghan Women

Dear Friends,

AIL provides women and girls with skills to look after themselves and their families. Literacy is stressed but so is sewing as it is a means to earn an income. The Girls Orphanage Learning Center provides sewing classes. Here is Madina’s story:

“Madina is 9 years old.  She has been protected by AIL since she was 7 years old at the Ansar Female Orphanage. Madina says, "I am an orphan. My father used to be addicted and my mother had to earn the family income. She served in the other people’s houses.  After my father passed away, my mother was married again due to the financial problems and she left me at the orphanage. I suffered a lot and could not get along with others. I changed and became an isolated and withdrawn child who was unhappy with everything.  I felt that I was imprisoned in this environment. Time passed and gradually I got accustomed to my jail. Soon, a Learning Center was created by AIL in our orphanage. It contained some professional skills and other learning classes. I wanted to be literate one day so I  registered my name in the computer, English, and dressmaking classes. I became very happy. I made lots of friends and I loved my teachers who were very kind to us.Slowly my mood changed to positive. Then I enrolled in the government school. Those classes helped me to be busy and not miss my parents so much as there were many children in my situation who were orphaned too.”

When she ages out of the orphanage Madina will have a useful skill to earn money, namely sewing. She will also be literate and have numeracy and language skills, all of which will make her employable.

Thank you for your support for Madina and other girls like her.