I opened my own salon after the beauty parlour vocational training, says Kareema from Herat in Afghanistan
Published: May 30, 2017 Reading time: 2 minutes
Kareema (36) was a housewife. Her large family of 10 was supported only by her husband’s income, providing approximately 7,000 AFA per month. In 2015, she heard about PIN activities and become a trainee at the beauty parlour vocational training in Herat.
“Before I came to this class I didn’t know anything about beauty parlour services, but I have loved it since I was very young, before I got married. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any opportunity,“ says Kareema. „Through this course, I decided to change it. I learned many new things in this training and then opened my own beauty salon in my house. I am hoping to be successful and support my family,“ she adds.
Kareema thinks, that People in Need activities are very useful and effective for people in the area. „PIN has helped many of them to improve their lives, especially women. For me personally, it was not only an organization that helped me to learn about beauty parlour services. When I came to register my name into the classes, others told me that I am too old to run a beauty parlour, recommending me embroidery classes instead,“ she explains.
I am hopeful of my future
„Now after a few months of the beauty parlour training, all my friends tell me that I look younger than the first day they saw me. It’s because I am very happy and hopeful of my future. I’ve made many friends since I have joined this class and learned many things from them. Finding new friends and good communication skills are the most valuable presents of People in Need to me,“ she describes.
The vocational training was part of the “East West Livelihood Initiative for Uprooted People”, being implemented during a period of 40 months in Herat and in Jalalabad city located in the east of Afghanistan. The project is funded by the European Union and the Czech Development Agency.
The goal of the initiative is to contribute to the sustainable economic and social integration of uprooted people and host communities in Afghan urban informal settlements. A complex approach and set of activities is mobilized to achieve this goal - ranging from community based self-help learning and savings groups to literacy classes and support to obtain civil documentation, including the aforementioned skills trainings.
*Names of people have been changed in the article for security reasons