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Self-employment training on wool processing and carpet weaving project

Project: Self-employment training on wool processing and carpet weaving project

Project Duration: December 2013 – March 2015

Context

Baluchistan Environmental & Educational Journey (BEEJ) is a Quetta-based non-profit organization, consisting of volunteers and experts. The organization is engaged in a number of sectors including education, health awareness, capacity building, small-scale community physical infrastructure development, community mobilization, institutional development, food security and livelihood protection.

BEEJ is implementing this particular project in the district of Musakhel, which has an estimated population of 247,000, 90% of the households live in rural areas and only 10% of the population in urban areas. With only little education and no skills, the population rely on meagre sources of income and live below the poverty line. Livestock, sheep in particular, is a main source of livelihood but without proper wool processing skills that is very essential for the local carpet manufacturing sector and its value addition. Similarly, carpet weaving, though a traditional trade in Balochistan, is hardly practiced in Musakhel district. This project is supported by the TVET Reform Support Programme as part of the Fund for Innovative Training (FIT) component. The TVET Reform Support Programme is co-financed by the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Federal Republic of Germany and administered by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Project objective(s):

In order to address the above-mentioned problems the project seeks to enable the target beneficiaries to increase their income by 20% through building capacity in wool processing, carpet weaving, and marketing.

The specific project objectives are:

– To train vulnerable men and women in wool processing and carpet weaving for future self-employment.
– To build the capacity of the beneficiaries to form community organizations as a supportive structure to production and access to markets.
– To monitor the completers of training in passing on their skills to family members.

Target Group

450 persons will directly benefit from the project. Of these persons 55% (250 persons) will be women. Clusters of trained people will continue to work for profit after training, and it is expected that each the beneficiary will train 4 family members, which when put together makes about 1,800 persons (indirect beneficiaries).

Methodology

Existing community organizations to which the beneficiaries belong will be restructured into production clusters of 25 beneficiaries before the commencement of the training programmes. Each wool processing cluster will be equipped with tools, machines and spinning wheels. In addition, the each carpet weaving cluster will be provided with looms for production houses to be set up by the project. All 18 clusters are responsible for organising their work schedules.

Training will be held at the cluster facilities. The curriculum is geared to practical training with only little theory. Certificates of the training will be provided by BEEJ and endorsed by TTB. As part of the project, two beneficiaries from each cluster will be instructed regarding business management and market demands to ease the direct path to local and regional markets.

Expected Outcomes:

• Enhancement of self-employment opportunities.
• Increasing income for target groups.
• Socio-economic improvements for vulnerable segments of the rural population.

For further details: Mr. Sajjad Haider
Email: sajjad@beej.org.pk