Customer Natasha De Sousa, a video producer, said "I was very impressed with the designs and the quality."
Women in Pakistan have strong embroidery and garment embellishment skills, passing local traditional styles and techniques from generation to generation. Yet due to their limited mobility, these women have had to accept low compensation for their products at local markets or through sales to intermediaries who buy low and profit from resale in higher-value urban markets. Either way, village artisans earn only small amounts for their painstakingly elaborate creations.
Read how these women surpassed social and cultural restrictions to develop their product collections, learning in a hands-on environment how to expand their businesses with USAID support.
Key components of USAID’s economic growth program include creating jobs, improving the competitiveness of Pakistani small and medium enterprises, addressing agricultural policy, infrastructure and productivity constraints; and significantly increasing women’s access to microfinance.
The U.S. is working with the Government of Pakistan to promote the rule of law and equality under the law; build public awareness of the benefits of educating girls and of providing them with economic opportunity and health care as well as of the benefits of changing societal attitudes.
This is the kind of foreign aid program from our government that I can support. I believe this is the best way to help people, by working with what they are already doing and their traditions to develop their skills to increase their productivity and value. This kind of help is enduring — I’ve seen it help whole villages and even more.
This is an inspiring story and it looks like the exhibition was a tremendous success.
Perhaps the most amazing part of the story is seeing how these small embroiderers consistently manage to overcome the odds and get their products to the market.
Not sure if you’re familiar with the website called Etsy or not, but just in case it’s a gigantic market place for hundreds if not thousands of work at home entrepreneurs who make their own craft products.
It seems like the women of Pakistan could probably benefit from something like this. Not too long ago I came across a story where a help organization created a similar community/marketplace for rural farmers in developing countries.
And since most rural communities don’t have internet connections this organization built the platform to run entirely on mobile. Perhaps something along those lines could also apply in this case.
It’s great to see these types of stories. In a way they’re not so different from a piece that we did a while back on boutique applique and embroidery businesses in the US.