Below is an excerpt from a promotional document for USAID that I wrote recently, it gives a good initial overview about the program I’m managing here in Afghanistan.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) seeks to reduce poverty and promote human development in Central and Western Afghanistan by enabling vulnerable communities to expand opportunities for meeting basic needs and improving lives. By connecting and expanding upon CRS/Afghanistan’s core strategies, the emerging Women’s Participation and Livelihood Improvement (PaLI) program builds an enabling environment for women to strengthen their contributions to family livelihoods and community development.
Women’s socio-economic support units, or self-help groups (SHGs), form the core foundation of PaLI activities. In 2004, women participating in the CRS Agro-enterprise Support Program began to mobilize into specialized groups to collectively market the produce of women farmers. CRS/Afghanistan decided to begin exploring SHG programming with the assistance of advisors from the CRS/India program, which currently supports over 24,710 self-help groups with more than 335,492 members.
An SHG is a group of 12-20 women who gather together on a regular basis to save and lend each other money according to their own rules. Savings activities build group cohesion, support micro-enterprise development, and provide an economic safety net for participants and their families.
Simultaneously with the formation of women’s SHGs, CRS began partnering in early 2005 with local NGOs to diversify the incomes of rural families and add value to the fruits and vegetables produced locally. With the help of partners Welfare and Development Organization of Afghanistan (WDOA) and Voice of Women (VWO), CRS has established 5 women-run food processing centers in local villages for the production of jams, juices, pickles, tomato paste and dried fruits and vegetables. The centers collectively employ 100 women, each of whom has received training in processing methods, marketing, and financial record-keeping, as well as sanitation and quality assurance practices. Their products are processed, packaged, labeled and sold in local markets and in the new women’s store run by WDOA, Thulidath Bano (Product of Women).
Both through the food processing and SHG activities, CRS has found that the regular meetings and income-generating activities of the groups help participants to build self-confidence, group solidarity and a collective strength that enables them to challenge traditional norms for women in their communities.
In June 2007, CRS began implementing a project with the Ghor Provincial Department of Women’s Affairs (DoWA). Through administrative and technical trainings, CRS aims to strengthen the long-term capacities of DoWA to respond to women’s needs, report critical trends and advocate for the addressing of women’s concerns on a provincial and national level.
Overall, CRS recognizes the potential for women’s contributions and participation in all activities and for women to act as change agents for their communities. CRS/Afghanistan’s core programs in agriculture, education, and watershed development all include components targeting women through activities such as young women’s accelerated learning programs, women’s agriculture projects assisted by female agronomists, and hygiene and sanitation trainings for women to manage the safe and clean and efficient use of water in their communities.
