Unintended Impact of COVID-19

Due to COVID-19, the women could not attend training in the classroom after their first month. Five sewing machines had been donated by an Afghan expat in Germany to the local organization and the start-up costs for the program had been donated by NF. A decision was made to allocate a sewing machine for three women to practice sewing in one of the group member’s homes. The teacher would visit the homes each week to give a new training assignment.

Since this new arrangement led to the women receiving less training than had been initially planned, the program has been extended until February 2021 for the initial group. After only one month of training, the women began sewing masks in response to needs due to the COVID- 19 virus. After 3 weeks, they had produced approximately 5,000 masks. The masks were 2 distributed for free to people working on the streets, hospital workers, and store owners. This was an unintended benefit from the program and showed the power of change the women could bring to their and others’ lives with basic support.

Resuming In-Class Training

Classes resumed in the classroom in late August 2020 and the women wear face coverings while in the classroom. A cleaner, who also cleans the learning program for children, was added to the budget so that the classroom could be sanitized each day. As soon as the women got back to the classroom, they had a new idea. They wanted to sew hospital gowns for those who had been affected by the floods in the northern section of Afghanistan. Again, the women provided much-needed supplies for others in need.

What NF has found that it has greatly benefited the women is not just the training, but a place they can go five days a week that offers them a safe sanctuary of support. They can help themselves and offer support to each other. They are learning to sew so that they have the skill to earn income, but are also being taught basic literacy and numeracy so that they have more tools to empower themselves and their children.

Monitoring

A signature of Nooristan Foundation programming is to select a capable local organization to implement projects. This allows for local organizations to increase capacity and utilizes donor funds much more effectively as it reduces overhead costs. However, NF requires each organization to agree to 3 monitoring of implementation and oversight of the expenditure of funds.

This is done through an independent organization, which sends a representative for site visits to collect information regarding program efficacy. The local organization is also required to take receipts for all supplies purchased, reports with signatures and/or thumbprints from the program recipients for each time the stipend is allocated, and from the teacher and cleaner for their salaries. In this way, NF can focus on program quality and raising donor funds, and connecting mentors, putting the safeguards in place to ensure donor funds are being spent not just for the purpose intended, but are being utilized in an efficient manner.

For program monitoring of EnCourage an Entrepreneur, NF has partnered with The Ghafoor Foundation, a local philanthropic organization. Further information on the organization can be found at www.ghafoorfoundation.org.

Costs + Budget

The start-up costs for the program were only about $860 USD. For the first six months, the women were given a stipend of 1,000 Afs/month which is only about $13 USD. It was increased to $1,500 Afs/month which is about $20/month. This provides them with money for groceries for their family. The goal is to not make them dependent on the program stipend but to motivate them to learn skills and graduate so that they can achieve a higher income after leaving the program.