Uruzgan shop owner provides work to 650 poor women

TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): A businessman in central Uruzgan province has provided job opportunities to about 650 women, most of them widows, with salaries from four to 10,000 afghanis.

A businessman named Agha Sherin has been running a neck design, shawl and other handicrafts shop in Tirinkot City for the past five years.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News that he initially hired two women but the number currently reaches 650.

He added most of the women were widows and poor who lost their breadwinners in the past conflict and currently they were the caretakers of their families.

According to him, these women do embroidery work in their homes on clothes given by him and they handed over to him after completion and then he sells it in the shop.

He said he even hired 10 women from a family and they earned up to 20,000 afghanis a month.

According to him, the hand-made embroidered necks design, shawls and other items made by these women of Uruzgan have a good market inside and outside the country.

He said these hand-made items in addition to Kabul and other provinces were transferred to US, Australia, United Arab Emirates and other countries as gifts.

Sherin said he had received no support from government or private institutions, it was his initiative and he attracted customers inside and outside the country based on his relations.

He said he was ready to set up a separate center for handicrafts of women if supported and would provide more job opportunities for such women.

Agha Sherin said he got most of the handicraft’s ordered from Afghans based in foreign countries.

He said they sold one Kandahari neck for 4,000 to 8,000 afghanis but it was worth 20,000 afghanis abroad.

He was happy to be able to provide job opportunities to 650 widows and poor women.

Bibi Sabargula, who has been working with Agha Sherin for years, told Pajhwok that in addition to her, four other women were working with Sherin in her house who earned a good income every month.

She said she was pleased to be working at home and providing her children with a living.

She said that her husband was an officer in the former administration and was killed during the war a few years ago.

According to her, there are many other widows like her who work with Agha Sherin.

Embroidery is the hardest job in terms of elegance but the women of Uruzgan have shouldered it to make a living.

sa/ma

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