Over 1,100 Afghans living in urban areas improved their lives through vocational training, self-help groups and urban gardens
Published: Jan 6, 2017 Reading time: 6 minutes
Mazar-i-Sharif (6 January 2017) - Urban areas of Afghanistan often provide a refuge for the large numbers of Afghans forced to leave their homes due to armed conflict, natural disasters or lack of economic opportunities. But resettling to the city does not necessarily bring an end to their despair. Whole families, often unequipped for their new environment and without the support of their extended family, continue to struggle for daily bread, joining the local urban population facing the same hardship. This is why People in Need (PIN), with funding from the European Union and the Czech Development Agency, responded to the growing poverty in urban and peri-urban areas of Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. The initiative provided 1,145 people and their families with the possibility of improving their lives.
Initial assessment revealed that food insecurity and unemployment due to lack of skills or illiteracy are the most prevalent problems in these areas. “People in Need addressed these issues using an approach combining vocational education, tailor-made training, women’s saving and learning groups, urban agriculture and low-cost innovative technologies,” says PIN Urban Poverty Programme Manager Michala Deveckova. “And what do all these activities have in common? With little investment they can transform the lives of uprooted Afghans - increase their income, diversify their diet, create important social safety networks, and thus help the urban poor to overcome difficult life situations in the long-term,” adds Michala Deveckova.
Kabirah opens a beauty parlour and her dream comes true
The project, funded by the EU and the Czech Development Agency, lasted for 28 months and focused specifically on women with particularly limited access to income generating activities. Kabirah (24) is one of the 186 beneficiaries who participated in different types of vocational training and apprenticeships. She lives with 10 other family members in the Sajadia district of Mazar-i-Sharif. Before joining the training, she faced a lot of economic problems.
“We all have dreams. I always knew I had a talent to be a beautician but never imagined I could become one. As a woman I face a lot of restrictions, but even so I wanted to help out my family. Then one day I received an offer to join the beauty parlour training, and I thought, how can I possibly turn down a chance like that?” Kabirah explains.
After 9 months of training and successful graduation, Kabirah and her fellow trainees received a toolkit and a small grant package to help them start their own microbusinesses. She then turned a part of her house into a beauty salon and customers, mainly women from the neighbourhood, started coming. This allows her to create new social networks as well.
“Before I opened the salon nobody knew me. Now all the neighbours come to my house and they are so happy with me, my dream comes true,” she says. In the first 10 days after opening her salon, she already earned around 3,000 AFN (40 EUR), which presented a big support for Kabirah and her family.
After the training, beneficiaries accounted that their economic situation is better compared to the time before joining the project; most of them managed to open their own business, more than a half stated that they can buy more goods (such as meat, oil or eggs) and more than a third said they can save more money.
Fighting urban poverty in Afghanistan
We saved enough money in the Self-Help Group to provide loans
People in Need also created female Self-Help Groups. “Thanks to regular savings and micro-loans, women can now access resources, which most of them never experienced before. Moreover, they learned basic business skills, effective nutrition, and hygiene practices under the guidance of experienced trainers,” Michala Deveckova describes the programme.
Jada lives with her husband and four children in Sajadia in Mazar-i-Sharif. She joined one of the Self-Help Groups. “We formed groups with other women from the neighbourhood. After saving little by little for 8 months, People in Need topped up our savings, and we were able to give out loans to the group members,” she explains. “With mine, I bought a cow. I started to sell milk and homemade yoghurt in the market. Since then I paid my loan back and was able to buy more animals from the income. I can now easily pay my children’s school fees. My family and neighbours are very proud of me,” concludes Jada.
By the end of the project, 597 women were organized in 30 groups and managed to save over 2,014,990 AFN (26,600 EUR) in total. “The loans helped over 560 women. Sixty per cent of them used it to start a business activity like tailoring, livestock and poultry production or wool spinning, others used them to cover medical expenses,” Michala Deveckova explains, adding that new groups were also formed independently among non-beneficiaries, after witnessing the benefits for their neighbours.
All groups are now fully independent and members plan to continue their regular meetings and use the interest-free revolving loans to further improve the situation of their families, empower themselves and strengthen their role in the community. “Thanks to the group meetings and small home-based shops, women have a chance to create new social networks and step out of their usual domestic sphere,” Michala Deveckova describes.
I did not know what a greenhouse is, now I have a profit
In total, 520 beneficiaries have benefited from the agricultural component of the initiative. They obtained an intensive five-day training focused on basic agricultural practices, rainwater harvesting and storage of harvested vegetables. They also received agricultural toolkits and seeds.
“To ensure a participatory approach and additional support for beneficiaries, lead farmers were selected for each group of trainees, based on their previous experience and land availability. Training and practical demonstrations happened in their homes, while they later acted as the group’s advisors. This ensured that the knowledge stays in the community and people are more interconnected, motivating and supporting each other,” Michala Deveckova explains.
Given the urban context, people have very small plots – between 10-15 square meters. Even so, all of them reported high harvest rates. Most of it was used for their own consumption. Beneficiaries with more agricultural land have also been able to give out some vegetables to their neighbours, relatives, and friends. Moreover, low-cost innovative technologies were introduced to farmers, such as greenhouses, rainwater harvesting mechanisms or vertical gardening. Motivated by the success of their neighbours, some non-beneficiary households living in the area tried the innovative concept of urban gardens themselves.
"Before I joined the project I did not have enough information about agricultural activities and did not even know what a greenhouse is,” describes Saad. "Previously our daily diet did not include vegetables and if we had guests we had to buy vegetables at the market," he adds.
"Now I am more familiar with agricultural techniques and I can do it myself. I save the money I spent before on buying vegetables at the market and by selling my surplus produce I am able to make a little profit," Saad explains how the EU-funded intervention helped him. He gives a part of his vegetable harvest to relatives and neighbours, which made him popular in his community.
“Czech Development Agency aims at eradicating poverty in all its forms. Tackling urban poverty is one the most difficult tasks, mainly because of its complex nature. We have supported this particular project as a part of our broader development strategy towards accomplishment of the MDGs and SDGs and we are satisfied with its results. The project has brought tangible results in job creation and income generation for some of the most disadvantaged people in Afghanistan,” says Michal Kaplan, Director of the Czech Development Agency.
As the population in urban and peri-urban areas of Afghanistan grows at an alarming rate, so does poverty and vulnerability. This is why in another project, People in Need, together with the EU and the Czech Development Agency, helps addressing the issues of uprooted people in Herat and Jalalabad.
*Names of people have been changed in the article for security reasons
