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9th class girl of Ibrahim Hydri High School Karachi
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iram:
9th class girl of Ibrahim Hydri High School Karachi
Sewing their way out of poverty
Karachi:Shazia, a student of class IX at Ibrahim Hydri High School, comes at the newly established Hunarmand Training Center every afternoon to learn machine embroidery. She is a traditional needle worker and has expertise in hand embroidery, but she now thinks this is time to move on and learn machine embroidery which she believes will not be difficult for her to learn.
“I will learn it easily,” a proud Shazia told The News. “It is just the beginning and once I improve my skills in machine embroidery, I would make new designs.”
Another girl, Azra, also a class IX student, is learning machine embroidery at the same centre. Her father Wali Mohammed is a mason, and she wants to assist him in financial matters. There are around 50 girls enrolled in the newly established machine embroidery training centre.
Women of coastal communities provide financial help to their families through embroidery. Several women, besides manufacturing cotton-thread fishing nets, have used to travel to open sea with the males of their families for fishing. However, since the recent past the women have not had much of a role to play in catching fish and most of them sit idle at homes.
Now the situation has forced them to learn embroidery and help their families. “The price hike and unemployment have made our lives miserable,” said Azra. “Besides learning embroidery, some of the girls have also joined beauty parlors in the neighbourhood to support their families in this difficult time.”
The Hunarmand Training Center, set up on the premises of the Ibrahim Hydri High School, is being run by the Hands Entrepreneurship Programme, in collaboration with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF). A School Management Committee (SMC), comprising PFF members runs the centre’s affairs.
The center was established two months back. Its managers say that they will provide training to up to 750 girls in a three-month period. The people who are trained will be able to get jobs in relevant textile sector.
Senior Manager of the Hands Entrepreneurship Programme, Rao Mohammed Ayoub told The News that the youth did not possess necessary skills to get suitable jobs. As a result, the families were facing acute poverty, he said, adding that girls and boys hailing from different coastal localities, including Rehri, Chashma and others, were coming to them to learn machine embroidery.
These women might earn an appropriate amount of money through this skill, he said. “These girls are extremely talented. All they want is some training,” Ayoub added.
He said that there were textile industrial units in the neighbourhood which need skilled workforce. The youths would have the potential to fulfill that need once they are given the training, Ayoub added. Meanwhile, he said the centre management had introduced TV repairing, Mobile Repairing, domestic electrician, motor winding, and the UPS maintenance courses for boys as well.
Ayoub further said that they would set up an entrepreneurship center in the locality where they would display the clothes, garments and embroidered works of their students. They would convince the people to buy wedding dresses which were prepared by their students. Besides, the embroidered items would be sold at reasonable prices, he added.
A trainer at the centre, Syed Nazeerur Rehman, said that the girls had the potential and they were hopeful about the outcome of their training programme. He added that similar programmes were initiated by the government which failed in the past because training was provided to the women but local markets were not set up to advertise the products. “We are trying to set up market centers in the villages,” he added.
Moreover, chairman of the SMC, Mahmood Gabol, said the programme is a challenge for the girls. “Hence, we expect positive result.”The News
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