Self help model

In many areas of the world we work in, we use a similar model to the one being used by ORA International. Women coming together in small groups and electing two to represent them in a cluster association and then forming committees and teams to eventually form an association. This way women have a greater voice together than apart. We visited two different cluster groups representing about 18 groups each. Many arrived in burquas. These groups are part of the 45 groups that have been developed representing about 800 family units and almost 4500 individuals. On this morning one of the facilitators was talking about having been beaten by her husband because she is working with the women. We noticed that her speech indicated her jaw had probably been broken in an earlier beating and set without medical treatment. We were angered, but know this model is a slow but sure way to empower even though outside interference could get her and others killed. These women were determined to keep coming and keep working towards a common goal. This was the day I was taking a survey of their skills and abilities to begin the economic portion of the training. They were so excited about seeing what I had purchased from the marketplace and other artisans and many of them have the same skills. I asked sach of them to pick up the product that I brought that most represents the work that they know how to do. They were all so excited as they shared with each other and me and curiously investigated the wares. The next step is in two weeks they are to bring back a sample of the item they said they could make or any other items from their groups to be photographed and emailed to me. This is the part where we begin to talk about starting businesses and quality. A very long process but oh so worth it when I see how excited they are and how hope is in their eyes.

Rastagar Carpets

Bringing Economic opportunity to the Hazara people. We visited carpet weavers in their homes and learned all about vegetable dye techniques and hand spun wool. I designed my first of what will soon be many carpets and taught about trends in design and colors. We also spent much time talking about logistics and transportation of carpets out of Kabul to the US. We all were amazed and impressed by those who had done so much on this project in the first year and look forward to a continued partnership working to improve livelihoods and income to the Hasara carpet weavers. We also talked about computer programs capable of designing rugs, marketing plans and art supplies needed there. My only regret is that I didn't bring a rug home with me. They were amazing, but I probably should unpack boxes in Orlando first.

Our Time in Kabul

Our time in Kabul was so full. Appointments up to the last minute even on the way to the airport. We were fortunate to be able to keep our very American work schedule on Afghanistan time. Many laughed at all we tried to fit in but in some miraculous way it all worked, including a few unplanned appointments like meeting with a family over breakfast that I had been emailing for two years. When we discovered over breakfast we knew each other via email we knew we were supposed to meet at this time. This family was in another region of central asia and had recently relocated to Afghanistan. Carolyn went with us to several trainings as an observer. The photos here are from our last two days, maybe photos are worth a thousand works, as it is becomming harder to describe how fortunate we feel to be allowed to have had the privilege to meet so many amazing people and participate in their lives in this way. One night before we left I had a last appointment at my guest house with someone from Rastagar Carpets. It was 10:00 PM, he asked me if I was exhausted, from our day as he was a part of a couple of appointments. My immediate response was "NO- this is what I was made to do". Being in the US focusing on operating and organization and fundraising...now that is exhausting. The delight I feel from being able to do what I was made to do humbles me and blesses me.

Burqua Recycled

We have seen many ideas to recycle the burquas. Including these Christmas ornaments. We also saw a burqua scare crow, dresses made from burquas and of course many women are still required by husbands and families to wear them. Some also wear them by choice such as coeds on their way to Kabul University, to keep the gawkers at bay.

A new shop

We visited Bpeace associate Nasima's new shop near Chicken Street, a large, popular shopping area in Kabul. Her silk scarves and beautifully dressed mannequins invite onlookers to see what's inside. All the designs are Nasima's creation and she then works with many ladies to create the completed product. She has a wonderful eye for fashion and Debbie shared many samples, magazines, and ideas. With each new piece Nasima lit up and you could see her creative juices flowing. Susanne, again, played model for sizing and fit. Her favorite gift we brought her was the much needed chalk pencil.

Caring for the littlest in Kabul

Now that more and more women are joining the workforce, daycare has become a real issue for many families. Habiba started one of the first private daycares in the city which has grown to 29 children in just 3 months. We were able to visit with the children who welcomed us in english and then sang us a song. Habiba has 2 professional teachers that work with the children. We were able to brainstorm some ideas for increasing the number of children to bring in more income, like having an open house, inviting the neighborhood, or starting an after school program for latch key kids. Habiba recently did some promotion with fliers and television. She has a real heart for the children and several families a week are inquiring about her program.

Threads of Hope

It was such a delight to get to visit the Threads of Hope project for the first time in Mazar-e-Sharif. We have been working with this group long distance for a couple of years and Megan from our office in Dallas went to live and work with this group full time. Megan returned to the US and got married this week, Congrats Megan- you are so missed and loved here. The work that she and others have put into this project is evident by the progress of the widows, and they have learned so much. This project was started to give a livelihood to the widows in this region. In just two years, the project has grown and it's no longer necessary for foreigners to be part of the daily operations. We were greeted with the production team in the sewing room and then had a design meeting in the shop that was opened recently. As I walked around the production room and saw their design boards I was so aware of the care and planning they were putting into their line of cards etc. They showed me three belt samples that I had ordered earlier this year and they had made lovely bags for each. We worked on the sizing and several other things and I placed an immediate order for holiday and winter and they had a special surprise for me, look what they made made from a burqua, Christmas ornaments!

Silk Weaving

While in Mazar we went to what seemed a remote village, but was actually just on the outskirts of town. We saw silk being prepared. Dyed in a caldron and before being woven. We were able to purchase some local silk fabric. Our guide and business woman - Nooria, has forty plus families who are weaving silk, just as this family is, and is helping to revive the traditional Afghan silk making. The raw fiber is brought here from Herat and the rest of the process happens in Mazar and then silk is sold all over Afghanistan. Nooria shared stories about her underground business during the Taliban during which she had more than one tenacious encounter with them. She told us of one time they came after her and she donned a burqua and pretended to be the housekeeper, escaping from any situation with them. She is an amazing woman and is the head of the a group of Afghan Business Women in the north which totals more than 300.

The Raousa - Shrine

Mazar is a city built on a graveyard. The word Mazar actually means tomb. They have one of the most holy places in Afghanistan. It was an amazing piece of art work and tile work, but felt very dismal and desparate as the child beggars, handicapped and poor surrounded the place. I discovered the most aggressive beggars I have discovered anywhere in the world. One woman would not let me close my door to the taxi, and others grabbed at us in very freaky ways so we could not wait to get out of the crowds. We did visit the bazaar to see what the local Mazar handcrafts looked like, but our main purpose here was to meet with Threads of Hope, a widows exporting business.

Trip to Mazar-e-Sharif

We headed out on Wednesday to visit Mazar in the north. It took an hour by plane flying over the mountains in a small Beachcraft plane. It would take a full day driving back through the mountains. As we landed we looked around us to pure wilderness everywhere. Flat, brown and not very industrialized. We immediately knew that those who were telling us that Kabul is not the real Afghanistan must have been truth tellers. In Kabul we still see women in burqas in Mazar we rarely saw a woman and there was no one we saw not in a burqa. The more conservative north made me wonder if there was any progress there at all. We were very covered up and still people gawked at us. Don't get me wrong we definitely made people stare in Kabul as in Mazar and the glares of the men made Susanne and I feel like we wanted to don a burqa. Laila told us that 95% of the Afghan men are bad and the other 5% are still not good. I understood her statement more than ever.

Inspiration comes in many forms

Could this hat Bakhtnazera is holding be inspiration for a new handbag design?

Field Trip

Sometimes to explain a point we need to take a fieldtrip. That was true today when we were talking about antique fabrics and traditional vs trendy designs. I was asking to reproduce some of the old embroidery designs into some new handbag designs to we took a trip to Hoessain's carpet shop. We reviewed old embroidery designs and here Bakhtnazera, Laila and Susanne are studying the patterns we liked most.

Bakhtnazera another jewel

When we first met Bakhtnazera, she was living in a 3-room apartment with 14 others, and had been earning $50/month teaching part-time. Bpeace helped her apply for a program with CARE, and Bakhtnazera now runs a ready-to-wear shop in Kabul, supervising a workshop of 30 widows. She has been able to move her family into an apartment of their own. She is one of Afghanistan's "fast runner" businesswomen we want to encourage. We believe in expanding the skills of top-tier Afghan businesswomen like Bakhtnazera, because they are in the best position to hire others. A year later Bakhtnazera and her husband, Hanagha, were seen in their shop bursting with pride of ownership and accomplishment. This picture reinforces the powerful work that is being done in Afghanistan." Today, volunteers continue to mentor Bakhtnazera, and are helping her expand into the home décor market to take advantage of the construction boom in Kabul. This is my first time to see Bakhtnazera since meeting her in NY two summers ago. She has been studying english 6 days a week and her communication has improved greatly. This will help her excel in this culture as well as help her with her US mentors and vendors who are beginning to place orders. She also mentioned to us that she has joined the Afghan Business Womans Association and will be at
an Exibition this Sunday which we will visit. She also was active on the team to obtain sponsors and funding for the exhibition.

Pantone 101

As we were looking at products and talking about products, I asked to see the Pantone book. It was quickly retrieved and our discussion continued. THANK YOU Pantone for the awesome donation to BPeace. The associates are really learning to use it and I had them show me each color as they were telling me what they thought would look good on the samples I was reviewing.

Visit to Rahima's home

All of the Bpeace associates are near and dear to my heart, and Rahima is yet another success story. She owns her own business making infant and adult bedding that is sold locally as a trousseau for a new bride or anyone interested in redecorating a bedroom. She also has been managing a government daycare. And in her spare time she was elected to Parliament. She is one of a few women who won a seat in the last election. Recently she was asked by the government to give up one of her government jobs so she chose to remain in Parliament and focus on improving her business, including clothing and accessories to her line. She and Susanne really hit it off and you can see them hugging here. She also wanted us to return for lunch and go with her to the meeting of Parliament on Saturday, but with our schedule being already so full, some things have to wait.

Product development and sample review

Off to a visit with Bakhtnazera , Suria and Rahima, three Bpeace associates, as we headed over to a shop owned by Bakhtnazera we were greeted by Laila and Suria, a few minutes into our arrival. Suria has a crochet company exporting products to the US and has a contract with US retailers greeted us with an invitation to her daughters wedding which would be Wednesday night. We were already scheduled to fly to Mazar and that flight only happens a few times a week, and we had already scheduled a meeting with the widows on Thursday. We were so disappointed Susanne and I were really ready for a party Afghan style. Maybe next time. Debbie is reviewing new product samples for inspiring the asociates with ideas. She also gave them chalk pencils so that they would be able to use them on fabrics to draw designs instead of the pen and ink that is traditionally used here. A lesson that has been taught many, many times here unfortunately. We looked at samples we brought from India, magazines we brought from the US and patterns. We ordered a few samples to review when we return from Mazar.

More Jobs Mean Less Violence

Our first full day in Afghanistan was very very full. We began our morning at the Business Council for Peace ,Bpeace, office, with Laila Ahmadzai, our program director in Afghanistan. We partner on the ground with other partners to further our mission and accomplish our work more effectively. BPeace is one such alliance. In 2002, a year after 9/11, a group of American business people asked themselves what they could do to give peace a chance. This question led to the formation of the non-profit Bpeace (Business Council for Peace). The idea was to help women in post-conflict countries build sustainable businesses. The strategy and logic were simple: more jobs mean less violence. Bpeace volunteers set their sights on Afghanistan and traveled there to find women who had operated covert businesses under the Taliban and were emerging as Afghanistan’s new entrepreneurs. The Afghan women who produced this product received pay in accordance with Fair Trade practices, and part of the profit helps women in Bpeace programs grow and prosper, benefiting their families while creating more jobs in their communities. Susanne is a BPeace member on the Rwanda team and Debbie is on the Executive Council and Co-Chair of the Product Marketing team as well as active on the Afghanistan team. I am so impressed with the accociates progress since the Style Road Trip in New York. We had an awesome reunion with Habiba at the B Peace office who was so excited that she got her passport. She has been accepted to a mini MBA program at Thunderbird. She also was sharing about her daycare which is growing to now have 29 kids.

Chaila - An oasis in the valley

We have found an oasis in this barren land. We spent part of our first day in Kabul at Chaila. Chiala is Dari for arbor. This is an amazing coffee house recently opened by an American. Real Lattes...real hamburgers, smoothies, tuna fish sandwiches and muffins. It’s a huge place with a courtyard and entire backyard with tables and chairs. Susanne was most excited about seeing CNN in English and having wireless access with 5 full bars! It is a great place to meet with people and plan our work here. Already today we met with the group from Memphis Friends Society who are here to do a business training tomorrow. We will begin our morning observing this training with Afghan business and government executives. We also met with Rina at Ora International to talk about the plan for the self help groups and getting them to the next level. We met Quedsia who is the Afghan leader for these groups and brainstormed and planned how to conduct the training next week. We were able to get a sims cad for my treo here so I could be reached and mobile. We talked to Laila at BPeace office in Kabul but so far we were unable to meet due to the Holiday today. We will meet her tomorrow after the training session to plan our time with the BPeace associates. I think we are going to find ourselves taking coffe breaks here quite often between appointments.

Independence Day in Afghanistan

This seems to be the Independence day world tour , since we celebrated the India Independence day a couple of days ago and we arrived to Afghanistan on their Independence day. Heading to Afghanistan we were aware that security seems to be getting tighter and tighter with each flight at the airport. Yet we have never felt unsafe. It’s more of a hassle than anything. We found the airplane to Kabul full of many nationalities and few women. Americans, a French film team, a Spanish group of workers and possible UN workers. It was interesting as we landed to taxi past 10 fighter jets, C130s and various UN planes and jets, all ready to go. As we drove through the city, we felt like we had stepped back 2000 years. There is still a lot of reconstruction going on from the war. The road to our guest house is riddled with bullet holes and rubble of bombed out buildings. They had been fighting from mountain to mountain and unfortunately, the city sits in the valley. The women on the street are few and you see many blue burqas, as those who have ventured out, hurry by. It was very obvious that women travel on a very limited basis. We were two of a handful at the airport. And before we walked out of the plane we had to put on our head scarves. As Susanne donned her head scarf, she noted that it really is an uneasy feeling. She described it as feeling like she disappeared. Like she were invisible by being all covered. Invisable is good in this political climate. Definitely necessary to get work done here, in order to have respect and be able to bring social help and economic development to this place we must respect their culture and customs. We are just glad as we are wearing long sleves and pants with head scarfs that is not the expected 110 degrees. We are celebrating the under 100 temps.

Lightening our load at Asha and training in trends

Everywhere we have gone we have picked up product samples from our producer groups and new inventory. So our last day in India we had to figure out how to get some of these treasures home due to the new security issues. No carry on luggage, when Susanne and I had two each. Asha came to our rescue, as we headed over to their office with two suitcases of stuff to ship home. We spent the afternoon with our friends at this businesswho are working with hundreds of NGO’s and artisans in India to design, market and export internationally through Fair Trade practices. Their work is expanded into self help groups that work with the artisans to improve their lives through education. They are helping to supply them with gas stoves to reduce the hazards of wood fires, starting backyard gardens using drip irrigation and lots of hygiene and health classes. The products range from jewelry and wood boxes, to beaded purses and leather goods along with wrought iron and environmentally friendly items like bone and horn. The work is intricate and detailed with vibrant colors and mixed materials. We have modeled our work after their model and help them with design and trend issues. We saw the possibilities for doing something similar to this in Africa. Asha has set the bar high for quality, integrity and social responsibility. Susanne spent some time with the head of their social work and took alot of notes on how they operate while Debbie lead a design trend training. We are excited to use this model to bring sustainability to the artisans in Africa. Big surprises and ah-ha moments when Debbie did the design and trend training with the two new designers, Joanne and Mithily pictured here with us. We made them understand that in the US and UK we would have a market for more tribal and traditional designs. Susanne modeled her top she bought for this trip from Old Navy and they could not believe us that it was from the US. They giggled and thought we were fooling them until they realized we were serious and showed them the tags. We designed some new handbags for spring and a few for fall and checked on our order of Christmas ornaments. The Warli designs and Bidri were also reviewed and with only so much we could do in a day we came home with photos and disks to design from.

Technology and India

In case you are wondering why our skype is going in and out or why we are not emailing as regularly we thought that you would be interested in seeing this. This is how the orange fiber optic cables are being installed in India. Draped over tree limbs, hung across bilboards and attached to walls of buildings with string. Email is available in the slums even if water and plumbing is not. So technology is catching on everywhere, almost. Susanne and I laughed until we cried following the cables down the roads.

Outsourcing and Exporting more than jobs

We left Pune for the five hour drive back to Mumbai. There was a four truck pile up on the mountain pass so we waited for ambulances, tow trucks and everyone to clear. Several people seemed to be hurt from the wrecks and we were grateful we were several cars behind the chaos, and our driver was very careful on the slick, wet mountain roads. A rare blessing for India. We also got to see some beautiful waterfalls with the rain coming down teh mountains. For a moment we pretended we were in Hawaii. Our trip to Pune was quite full of surprises and changes from the last time I was in Pune. The names IBM, Siemens, Infotechnology and many others were clearly evident in the new technology parks that have begun in the area. The low middleclass is growing and bringing rise to new problems as marriages are suffering and people are facing the challenges of whole communities working on the US and UK time zones. The good news is many workers have gone from working as handcraft producers to working in technology call centers. We have been meeting about the new needs here and are persuing working in some orphanages to give skills and work experience to older orphans 14-17. The couple in charge of the work group is also looking for other ways to help out their changing low caste and lower middle class. With family issues and marriage issues it seems work is not the only thing we are exporting to India. We have been joking all week that Susanne and I look more Indian than many here. The US wardrobe is becoming preferred by the college and young workers, and the struggle between the old and new India was more obvious here that in the less industrialized regions we visited last week.

Security is tight so are the roads!

We left Kutch on Monday afternoon for a flight to Mumbai. We were caught up in a security nightmare as they made us check our two carry ons and only carry one bag on the plane. As international passengers, there are usually many concessions made, but not on Monday. No makeup, lipstick gels, etc. They did let us carry on our laptops and cameras, but that will not be the case as we head to Afghanistan on Saturday. We are having to leave much of our luggage in India and get it back on the way to Nairobi. This is not a great time to be on this "World Tour", but fortunately we do feel safe. The roads are filled with cars, trucks, auto rickshaws, cows, water buffalo, shepherds and sheep. Makes the rides full of surprises and uncontrollable honking.

After the flight to Mumbai, we took a four and a half hour car ride through the rainy mountain roads to Pune to see other friends who are running a card making group. Just as in the US on a car drive we were thrilled to see the golden arches as we were ready for a clean rest stop. In India that is a rare treat. As we read the menu board we laughed at the Chiken Tika burgers and Maharaja Mac. French fries thank goodness are the same everywhere!! We are here for two days and heading back to Mumbai fro meetings with several handcraft groups and our Exporter who consolidates our shipments. I will be doing a training for their designers on trends and colors that impact 2007 and 2008 designs.

It's all in the translation

Many of you are wondering how I can go so many places and work in so many countries without knowing all of the languages. My heart language is Arabic and English. However 30% of the Hindi language is derived from Arabic. So I can get a few words in, but my two friends here Hanson with his family and Steve helped me in the villages with translation. Hanson is a real blessing as he is one of the only people who can go with me to the villages who speaks Kutchi. Kutchi is an unwritten language and only a few people outside of the tribals know it. Hanson is hired often for his wonderful work in translating books to Kutchi. My friend Steve came from Varanasi to help me teach in Hindi. As you see, Susanne and I get by with a little help from our friends. In India there are some hundreds of languages so as we travel through India we count on the help of many such friends and translators. Over the years they too have become passionate about our work. Hanson along with some local leaders are now helping other social workers learn the language so soon I will have many people in villages with language learning.

Working with Orphans

This is Janet and Steve. Two new friends from New Zealand who have moved to Kutch to build an orphanage shown in the background. Since the folk arts of Kutch are passed down from generation to generation we have a heart to to help Janet teach the orphans who will live here the traditional crafts of teh region. The value of the tradition will be lost of it is taught by us, but we are sure we could entice some of the older women in nearby villages to do classes for them. Janet and Steve are building a workroom for teaching sewing, tailoring etc, withought even knowing we would be introduced. We met them headed to another village and they were way out a road, we never even planned to meet, as we were not sure they were there. Hardly an accident - all things work together for good. They are living without water or electricity as they build the orphanage and an amazing committed couple.

Visiting Artisans and studying the arts of Kutch

So much of our work is keeping the old alive in the new designs. The value of the textiles and handcrafts are dependent upon keeping the folk crafts alive, yet bringing economic opportunity and sustainability in marketable products. Understanding the true essence and documenting tribal designs helps us understand the work better and have better communications with the artisans.

KalaRaksha Museum

Susanne and Avni review the collection of textiles at the design museum in the village of Surmusar.

Anklets and Mary Janes

We couldn't resist this shot. It is the then and now. Just a few years ago I took the shot on the bottom of this blog of a barefooted village child in anklets. This is the new "village" look for a school girl.

Untouchable- I think not!

These precious kids are part of a caste system in India that is "Dalit". They are considered the lowest and are not allowed to go to traditional schools and be treated equal. Many schools have been set up by the Dalit Freedom Network to educate and provide opportunity for the Dalits. Susanne, and a few friends visited the school which is very near the villages where we work. Their work is amazing and we look forward to the day there are womens programs in each of the schools for the mothers. When we visit some of the projects like this one it reminds us why we are doing what we do, and makes the long drives down desert roads worth it. I- Debbie was busy interviewing a designer who spent a few days with us.

Inspecting the Bindi colors

Susanne is inspecting the Bindi Shawls and quality of silk and vegetable dyes. Of course she bought a couple of samples too. They will come in handy as we need to cover our heads in Afghanistan. She will ultimately be working in Africa, but learning about the quality and dying issues is something she can use everywhere.

Colors of Kutch

The colors of Kutch are not only evident in the landscaping this trip. Many of the artisans we have been meeting with have been practicing with new dye techniques and vegetable dyes and the scarfs and other items we are designing and ordering are from this new color pallett. As I ewnt to visit one of my friends he told me in describing the new work that they are becoming more "civilized". To them that means being able to produce the same thing more than once. Yeah- it has taken years to get here. The question and challenge becomes how to become more "civilized" with keeping the integrity of the artisans goods and art of the region. It seems that that we are able to explain that well as we work towards common goals.

Rainy Season

It is monsoon season in India and our bus from Mumbai waded through several feet of water to get us to and from the airport. We are however now in Ghandidham and have been going nonstop for 2 days. Usually this place is very brown, but due to the rains there is green everywhere we look. Since this is in West India almost on the Pakistan border, we are driving far and long into the villages- Our days start at 7:30 or so and last night ended at 12:15 am. I was way overdue for a visit here and so many visits and things to do are keeping our time well utilized.

Our Trip begins with travel favor

From Susanne:
It is 9:20 am Monday here in Dubai. Looking at the clock on my computer it’s 1:22 am in Orlando. And we had great favor on the 13 hour flight from NY to Dubai. The woman upgraded us to Business class. We had mechanical seats that reclined almost flat, had our own 15 inch tv/dvd that I watched 4 movies of my choice. For lunch I had lobster, shrimp and fresh scallops. It was truly the Royal treatment!! The bathroom even had perfume, flowers, cloth towels and a full length mirror! I can say I’ve never experienced a flight like that. I can only imagine what First Class was like! So now we wait until 1:30pm to head to Mumbai, and free internet in the Dubai Airport- life is good. Not our usual way to travel under the non-profit budget.

What a great journey it has been already. Dubai is a veritable melting pot. There’s mosques in the airport about every 5 feet and you hear every language and see every manner of dress. Although one of my favorite experiences so far was standing in the ticket line. An African family with a small boy about 5 years old began a conversation with an Indian boy behind him that was about the same age. These two carried on quite the conversation about every kind of toy and game. What was their favorite action hero, their favorite Pokemon card and even about video games. But the African boy, regretfully and longingly looked at his father as he told the Indian boy he didn’t have a Playstation or even a Gameboy. I so wanted to take out my camera and capture this wonderful innocence. Kids are kids no matter where you are and differences don’t matter. They all speak the “same” language. What a good lesson for us all.