WUNRN
AFGHANISTAN - WOMEN'S BUSINESS IN
HIGHLY CONSERVATIVE
REGION GAINS PROFIT &
COMMUNITY ACCEPTANCE - MODEL
In the eastern Nangarhar
province, a women’s employment scheme overcame the worst strain of prejudice to
become a local success story.
by Mohammad Yasir Sharifi , Jalalabad , 13.7.2011
For 18 women who dared to take jobs at the processing plant in
such a conservative region, it has been a life-changer. (Photos: Sharifi)
Their
heads shrouded for correctness and hands gloved for hygiene, the women at the
New Idea processing plant go about their daily routine of cleaning and packaging
fruit and vegetables.
It's
a rather unexceptional activity for a team that was initially viewed as a
prostitution racket by suspicious locals in Nangarhar’s Surkhrod district. Or
is it?
Against
the odds, the New Idea processing facility has emerged as a successful model.
Not only has it won contracts for the tons of food processed by its 18 female
and three male staff members, but it also overcame stiff resistance to the
concept of a predominantly woman-run work project.
Tough fight for recognition
“When
this facility started operating five years ago, not a single woman, not even
those in the direst financial straits, showed any desire to work in such a
place,” recalled plant manager Zarmeena.
Set
up with funds from USAID, the business was immediately subject to protests and
even demonstrations by local residents who accused the organizers of opening a
brothel. The management started engaging the community leaders in talks to
explain the project.
“Finally,
after a two-month public awareness campaign, we were able to convince people
that this facility had been created to assist women, and that [local leaders]
could keep close track on what went on here,” Zarmeena said.
Once
the elders had been won over, the founders started to recruit. The first three
women came from severely disadvantaged families in the district’s Sultanpoor
area, received a week of training and got to work as the only processing staff
for the first two months of operation. Then, after other local women saw that
the facility was guarded by only two older women and that it’s male marketing
manager stayed mainly away from the premises, 15 more joined.
They
earn nine US dollars for an eight-hour day. It is not only a reasonable wage by
local standards, but the income and opportunity has helped lift families out of
the worst extremes of poverty.
“My
husband lost both of his hands in a traffic accident six years ago and he can
no longer work,” says Bano, a mother of five young children who sits cleaning a
basket of vegetables. “I came here with nine other women two weeks after we saw
six women were working. Our problems led us here and we are still overjoyed
that we decided to come.”
Stringent standards are paying off
The
actual processing is simple but thorough: the produce is scrubbed and washed
three or four times in water before it goes to the packaging line to be
wrapped. It is then stored in cold units before being sent for delivery.
Hygiene
standards are stringent, insist the managers: Every employee is tested for
diseases like hepatitis B and tuberculosis, said Matiuallah Amanzai, public
relations director for the New Idea NGO that helped found the plant and also
gave it its name.
Over
the past five years, local farmers like Welyat Khan have found valuable outlets
for their produce through New Idea.
“They
gave me two and a half kilos of broccoli seeds and I sold the crop to the
packaging facility for five afghanis higher than the market price,” said Khan.
“Whenever I grew vegetables before they were never purchased and I’d make a
loss.”
The
facility is curently able to process up to six tons of produce a day, according
to marketing manager Ajmal Shinwari. And the quality and professional look of
the packaged products meant that last year the plant sent almost 15,000 tons to
several Afghan distributors, as well as shipments to
Total turnaround in attitudes
But the change of attitude in the community is the most striking
aspect of the story. The processing plant is now an object of pride rather
suspicion, said Hayatullah, the head of Sultanpoor village.
Ripe for the market: Local lemons labelled in English
"Pride of the Eastern Region" are boxed for delivery in
“At
first we strongly opposed the facility. But then we saw that its work consisted
only of providing income opportunities for women and offering broad support for
local farmers, and we are now delighted to have such a facility operating
here,” he said.
Hayatullah’s
counterpart in the Hijrat Kili village of the Surkhrod district, Badaam Gul,
said that as well as initial suspicions about the nature of the women’s work,
there was plain resentment at jobs being given to them rather than unemployed
men.
But
people have now accepted the concept of the New Idea plant, Gul said, stressing
that, “there are hundreds of more needy women in the community for whom there
are no job opportunities.”
But
as the market for the produce grows, so do the plans for the plant. Eventually
it will be incorporated fully into the Tek Dani processing company which is
currently contracted to run the packaging and distribution side and operates
several similar facilities across the country. The number of women employed at
New Idea is expected to double during the amalgamation, said Tek Khan’s
director Meraj Udin Amiri.