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Women’s centre at Mastuj seeks support

CHITRAL, 23 June 08: Three Star Women Skill Development Community Center was established by three sisters of Tooq Hazrat Abad Tehsil Mastuj in the year 1999.  Miss Shakeela Naz, Director of the center said while talking to journalists

Ashrafia Bibi, Shahira Khan and Shakeela were the three sisters who have set up the centre. They belong to Toq Hazratabad Mastuj .

The centre offers women an opportunity to learn sewing, embroidery and making local handicrafts. Naz said the women who came to the centre had to bear hardships and hurdles, created sometimes by their families, but they continued to learn.

At the start, she said she got training by Agha Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), Chitral, in different skills. Then, she and her sisters obtained loan from AKRSP to open the centre.

The sisters also got loans from the First Micro Finance Bank, Agriculture Development Band and National Bank of Pakistan to purchase sewing machines and other equipment.

Some 10 students joined the centre to start with but now the number has been increased considerably. Naz said about 720 women had been trained on different skills at the centre so far.

The main objective of the centre was to encourage women to become a useful part of the society and to help them stand on their own feet, said Shahira Khan.

She said the centre could not return a Rs 50,000 loan to the National Bank of Pakistan because it was not earning profits.

“We want to expand this programme by opening more such centres in remote and backward areas of Chitral but we have been facing financial problems,” said Shakeela Naz.

She appealed to the president, the prime minister, donor agencies and government authorities to extend support to the centre so that more women could benefit from it. (GH Farooqi)