Women's Bakery Project

Location:	Kandahar
Number of Beneficiaries:	40,000 individuals
Start Year:	2002
Status:	Completed

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Project Overview

The Kandahar women's bakery project will allow approximately 5,600 female-managed and poor households to have secure access to baked breads for an extended period of 6 months.

The breads will help the households to reduce their expenditure on food and divert financial resources to improve living standards.

This programme will also give economic empowerment to women.

Project Background

According to the UN, Afghanistan's estimated one million war widows ranks it among the countries with the highest female-headed household population.

The rapid changing social and economic conditions in Afghanistan has forced these women into multiple roles as food producers, care providers, income generators and decision makers under conditions of limited financial resources without the help of a spouse or other support.

Complex emergencies, violence and destruction, create even more intolerable conditions for women who traditionally have the primary responsibility of sustaining life within families.

Project Objectives

To set up independent women bakeries, allowing widowed families to gain access to a sustainable form of income

To provide a source of employment for widows and enable them to acquire specific skills

To provide subsidised bread predominantly to widow-managed families and poor households for a duration of six months.

Project Activities

Registration of beneficiaries and appointment of widowed women in bakeries
Identification of houses for the bakeries and improvement in basic bakery infrastructure and provision of different equipment (one time activity).
Baking and selling bread (continuous activity)
Monitoring and Evaluation (continuous activity)

Around 40,000 people from the community of Paghman and outlying areas will benefit from the project, with 26,400 of these coming from vulnerable groups.

Islamic Relief’s Work

"Islamic Relief is striving for a fairer world. Our mission is to help the poor and needy to live sustainable, self-reliant lives within safe and caring communities. Our work is guided and shaped by the core values of accountability, humanitarianism, neutrality and impartiality, inclusiveness, integrity and co-operation, all of which are also integral to the Islamic faith."
Dr Hany El Banna - Founder of Islamic Relief

Islamic Relief was established in 1984 and our unique approach is the result of these many years of hands-on experience.

Where possible we adopt a community partnership-based approach; encouraging community involvement, understanding and ownership of projects.
We run the majority of our field projects ourselves, giving us direct insight into the problems faced and how best to solve them.
We aim to empower those we help in order to achieve sustainable results.
Though our emergency response teams are quick to respond to emergencies around the world, we continue to support communities long after the initial media interest has died down.
We recruit staff locally to benefit from their local knowledge. This ensures that we are culturally sensitive and allows us to reach communities and areas other organisations cannot.
Where necessary we coordinate our work with other reputable aid agencies, local organisations and governments.

Millennium Development Goals

Islamic Relief is committed to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which have been agreed by the world’s leading development institutions in an effort to meet the needs of the world’s poorest by the year 2015.

The goals:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development

For more information about the MDGs, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/