RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: After completion of baseline survey to select 500 females including 100 Afghan Refugees, three-month training in different skills including embroidery, wool weaving and block printing has been started.

The training has been jointly launched by AHAN (Aik Hunar Aik Nagar) a non-profit company working under Ministry of Industries and Production and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Commissioner Afghan Refugees Peshawar (CAR) and Refugee Affected Hosting Areas (RAHA).

The skill enhancement phase involving trainings on embroidery, block printing and weaving will be followed by capacity building on enterprise and marketing, says a press release issued here.

Regional Coordinator AHAN KP, Zahid Ali Shah said the selected 500 females are divided into 25 groups comprising of 20 each and are getting training in skill of their choice. About 25 trainers have been hired under the project to train the trainees.

An organisation will also be formed of project beneficiary so that they could be in contact in future for exchange of new developments in sale and demands of their products.

Zahid said samples will also be collected during training phase which will be displaced at exhibitions and display centers of AHAN from across the country.

The project also involves holding of an exhibition at the end meant to build sustainable linkages for the trained beneficiaries.

Moreover, livelihood kits will also be distributed in the project to ensure sustainability of the proposed interventions.

Among these 500 female trainees, the best one who showed extra interest in the work would be selected for giving them orders in future.

AHAN and UNHCR RAHA will continue to support these beneficiaries through involving them in production orders and through developing further linkages of these artisans with business houses and financial institutions.