From Dependency to Entrepreneurship
From Dependency to Entrepreneurship: The story of Balkhi Mah from Baharak, Badakhshan
Balkhi Mah, 45, lost her husband during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. She now lives with her 4 children in a small mud house in Bewekan Village which is in Baharak District in the northeastern province of Badakhshan.
“I don’t own a piece of land or a garden of fruit trees; therefore I have been working as a gardener (Baghban) taking care of another person’s garden. I am paid for my work with a small amount of fruit. My children and I will eat some of the fruits, but the majority is dried for the winter. In the winter, I sell the surplus dried fruits to local shops in order to buy tea, bread and sugar. But I found it hard to make ends meet," Balkhi Mah says.
Balkhi used traditional methods to dry the fruit. This would mean she left the fruit outside in an open space under the direct sunlight and exposed to other harmful elements. This resulted in poor quality products and thus generated very little income.
This summer, Balkhi was told by her neighbour that Afghanaid supports women on fruits processing. Balkhi met with one of Afghanaid's female coordinators to see if she eligible for the training. A few days later, she was informed that she had been selected.Balkhi said that “joining the group was a turning point in my life. Besides attending training sessions where I learned new set of food processing skills, I was provided with tools and equipment for fruit and vegetable processing. Within three months time, I have learned how to dry fruit in order to maintain a high quality product and new skills of processing fruits and vegetables. I now can make some preserves, for instance, fruit jam, pickles and tomatoes paste”.
The skills acquired sparked an entrepreneurial flair in Balkhi. Immediately after the training and after sampling Balkhi's tasty fruit jams, the owner of a neighbouring orchard asked her to prepare paste from tomatoes grown on the land. Balkhi accepted and made the paste over two days. This activity generated an income of 400 Afs ($8). Few days later, the owner of the same orchard requested Balkhi to make jam from the various fruit available in her orchard, in return for her services Balkhi received 2 meters of new cloth and 150 Afs ($3).
Balkhi said “my daughter visited my house and when she saw the bottles of jam and pickles in my house she asked me where they came from. I told her that I had produced them. She immediately wanted to learn how to do it too. We made 26 bottles of jam together; I gave her 13 bottles and the remaining 13 I sold in the local market for a total of 1000 Afs ($20).”
Balkhi also traveled to the village where her daughter lives to provide training to the women in that village. Today Balkhi Mah is a proud micro-business woman, she is hoping that the fruit, she has dried this year, will be sold with a better price in coming winter.
In Balkhi's own words: “Without the project support, I would have not been able to gain new knowledge and skills; I must say that this project has given me a new path for life with dignity.”
