SEWA to help Afghanistan develop centre for vocational training

Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) will help the Ministry of Women's Affair, Afghanistan to develop a women's Vocational Centre for Training in Kabul at Bagh-E-Zanana facility in Kabul. SEWA will provide training and technical support for the development of this centre.

Gursharan Kaur, wife of the prime minister of India Manmohan Singh had announced that the Indian government will help Afghanistan to develop the Bagh-E-Zanana as a vocational training centre during her visit to Kabul in 2006.

SEWA has been selected by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, for developing this centre.

A delegation of 20 Afghan women including the ministry officials and NGOs visited SEWA premises and various units during an a exposure visit from April 2nd to April 7th in Ahmedabad.

Nooria Jaan "Banwal", the director of Economic Empowerment Department-Ministry of Women's Affairs, Afghanistan, while speaking to media on the last day of the visit, said, "Through SEWA's help we will be opening up a vocational training centre for women in Kabul's Bagh-E-Zanana, a garden especially made for women and children. SEWA's senior coordinators had visited Bagh-E-Zanana in November 2006 and had prepared a feasibility report after conducting a study. As per the feasibility report the facility can be developed into a vocational training centre for women. Not only that but it can be further developed into a Community Business Resource Centre (CBRC)."

SEWA will train some women from Bagh-E-Zanana who will later on work as trainers, administrators at the vocational training centre.

The delegates were taken on a tour to all the SEWA facilities so that they can have an idea how this can be replicated in Afghanistan. SEWA will impart training on sectors like embroidery, stitching and garment manufacturing skills, nursery and plantation, processing and packaging of fruits and nuts and management and marketing.

Nooria Jaan said, "The SEWA project will start from as early as next month and will last for two years. Although it will take many years for the women of Afghanistan to actually start getting the fruits of the project. We will also consider the micro finance facility at a later stage when the women are ready to start their own businesses. However, at present our aim is to provide them the training so that they can survive. There are 1.5 million widows in Afghanistan as the result of the war. These women with dont have any means to sustain their lives. This project will economically empower them."