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 Home Overseas Projects Afghanistan Region Strategy
Strategy
05 October 2010
We support a vocational training centre that offers literacy courses, education in childcare, hygiene and women's rights, and training in tailoring and handicraft production - to empower Afghan women, to enable them to break free from subjugation and violence, and to give them the means to be self sufficient.
A core element of our strategy is to assist Afghan women to empower themselves. We therefore work in partnership with the Organization for Promoting Afghan Women's Capabilities (OPAWC) , a long-established NGO registered with the Afghan government and run exclusively by women. Having worked with poor and illiterate women since its establishment in 1997 OPAWC has the local knowledge, the administrative expertise to operate under conditions of conflict and the trust of Afghan women.
The Vocational Training Centre operated by OPAWC offers adult literacy classes for 150 women. The curriculum follows Afghan government guidelines for the standard 12 month literacy course but includes classes on childcare, hygiene and women's rights.
All women live in the neighbourhood and walk to the centre.
Within two years some 300 women had passed through its program. As no more women of the neighbourhood were able or willing to attend classes, the Centre was moved to another suburb in April 2010. OPAWC plans to reach as many women as possible by moving the centre every 2-3 years to another suburb of Kabul.
A handicraft workshop in the centre allows women who have completed the 12 month literacy course to gain an income by producing highly valued items for festive occasions. Classes offered cover tailoring, hand embroidery, machine embroidery and bead working. The centre is a member of the Federation of Afghan Business Women , through which it can exhibit at trade fairs. The plan for 2011 is to establish a production and merchandise sales system and move towards self-sustainability of the centre.
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