Can you help me raise £20,000 to support 100 Afghan women?

In May 2023, to celebrate my birthday, I decided to gift £500 to support women in Afghanistan who are now unemployed and, in many cases, destitute as a result of the Taliban passing laws prohibiting women from doing many of the jobs they used to do. Teachers, police officers, journalists, shop assistants, beauticians……an endless list of forbidden jobs for women who are now all now compelled to remain home. But no jobs equals no money. It is desperate times for many.

My birthday money was used to put 5 women in Kabul through a 6 month professional tailoring course. The cost was £90 per person (or £15 per month) plus an additional £10 for materials.

With the support of some generous individuals and the continuing support of my business Jaluch we are now up to 34 women all qualified as tailors and now earning money. We have sent money for some sewing machines too. One cohort of 5 women landed a great contract making school uniforms - the power of learning how to work together to maximise income. We are so delighted.

I can’t imagine a world where I’m not allowed to work, to earn money to put a roof over my head and food on the table. Gifting money to people so they can create new careers for themselves seemed like a great way to give them back some of the dignity they have lost.

I'm asking for your help because there are tens of thousands of Afghan women without work right now. There’s not many options when you have to work from home and most occupations are banned. But one thing they can still do is tailoring. I know we can't retrain ten thousand women, but I'm convinced that if we all work together on this we can make a big difference in the lives of 100 women. So our current focus is on getting the next 34 through the 6 month qualification.

A humanitarian crisis

In December 2021 the UN warned that around 23 million people (almost half the population) in Afghanistan faced acute food insecurity and hunger, including more than 3 million children at risk of death from severe malnutrition.

Women in Afghanistan are pretty isolated whilst facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The sewing courses, everyone learning together, provide women with the skills and training they need to start their own businesses or work together in cooperatives. The workshops will also provide women with a safe and supportive space to learn and grow. Just someone to talk to outside their own home, they tell me, is a life saver!

Any amount you can give will make a difference in the lives of these women and enable you to become part of this amazing journey….100 women, six months training and they can become financially self sufficient. Thank you for your support.

Are you wondering how this started?

Why Afghan women, and why tailoring, and why me?

Earlier this year, through work (I deliver leadership training amongst other things), I met a lady called N (I have anonymised her name to protect her identity as her young children had already been attacked before she fled to the UK). N is from Kabul in Afghanistan but is currently living in the UK. She has a husband and young children.

N might be a refugee in the UK facing huge disruption in every aspect of her life but she remains a hard worker and keen advocate of women’s rights. Before she came to the UK, alongside her day job she used to run education programmes for women – often in partnership with local schools and charities.

I met N as I had been told she wanted help to set up a business in the UK, reducing her need for benefits and state support. The leadership programme that my business runs includes a community challenge every six months. In March 2023 we agreed to support N so the community challenge set for leadership programme delegates was to identify what kind of business N could set up, and draft an initial business plan to help her get that off the ground.

Within just two months N had started her business Heart of Afghanistan , making and selling Afghani street food. But alongside that work N also told us there were a couple of women who had been training to sew back in Afghanistan but who didn’t have sewing machines to earn a living. So alongside setting N up in business, the leadership programme funded two sewing machines for these women and, through these discussions, I learnt that there was this long, long queue of women also wanting to train up as professional tailors.

How do we get the money to them and make sure our money is going to the right people?

Working with N we have already sent some monies for the tailoring classes. N helped us identify a teacher in Kabul, and agree the per head cost.

The teacher has been identifying women in poverty or hardship to create a priority list of those we can help and N and has been sharing evidence of bank transfers, the names and histories of the 6 women now studying (through a generous donation we have added another one after the initial five) and on a regular basis the teacher has been sending us photos and messages from the women.

Here are a few photos they have sent me showing what they are doing. You can see that they are already innovating and thinking about jewellery as well as clothing and bags.

Selling their goods!

Initially these women can sell what they produce in local markets. This is what one women said after we gifted her a sewing machine:

"I feel very good. I don't want to sleep tonight. I want to prepare my shop and open soon so that the customer can come and I will work independently. All girls said, Afghan girls are not forgotten by the world. They come to the class with a smile more than on other days and they are happy that the equipment needed is provided. Her classmates girls joked with her that God had performed a miracle and came to you from the sky, tell the sky not to forget your friends. Humanity is still alive and the sky is above you and will be I will share my equipment any time you all need it."

And just so you can understand how quickly we can move on this we sent N money for the sewing machine on a Friday. On the Saturday she showed me the bank transfer confirmation. On Sunday she sent me a text with photo attached that showed the money being picked up from the bank in Kabul plus later that day the sewing machine that had been purchased and on Monday I got a photo of S who was already using her new machine! It is the most amazing feeling to bring such instant support to those who need it.

But as we develop our army of tailors and creators we need to think about other sales markets.

As a result, with N we are setting up an online store within the UK to sell handmade afghani items of clothing, jewellery etc. this work is ongoing but already we have identified that we can tap into Afghan refugees in the UK who recognise that supporting the sales activity this end can create paid work for them too.

How your donations will be used:

6-month professional tailoring course - £90

Sewing machine - £100

Materials - £10

Thank you for reading. Any donation however large or small will make a real difference to these women and every penny raised will go straight to where it’s needed.