During August 2016 Training of Trainers were conducted for Village Enterprise Facilitators (VEFs) and district staff in Balkhab District of Sarepul province.
In this training 18 VEFs and 3 district staff participated and the following modules were delivered within 7 days:
- Group Management
- Microfinance
- Business Development Services
- Market Linkage and Value Addition
Also a total of 4,339 SHG members have completed different vocational skill training in below mentioned districts:
- Balkhab District 2,468 members (1,757 Female)
- Gosfandi District 289 members (251 Female)
- Sancharak District 579 member (466 Female)
- Shortepa District 248 member (222 Female)
- Kishindeh District 42 member (11 Female)
- Dara-i-Suf Bala 311 members (160 Female)
- Dara-i-Suf Payan 402 members (310 Female)
At the same time access to tools is very essential in order to start or expand an enterprise; therefore during the month of August a total of 543 members received access to different types of enterprise start up kits as follow:
- Balkhab District 334 (253 Female)
- Sancharak District 143 (65 Female)
- Gosfandi District 24 (15 Female)
- Shortepa District 19
- Dara-i-Suf Bala District 19
- Dara-i-Suf Payan District 4
During the month of August a total of 815 jobs have been created by internal loans and enterprise startup kits.
Engaging Local Stakeholders
On 23rd of August 2016, Hand in Hand Afghanistan conducted stakeholders meeting in HiH Af branch office at Gosfandi district of Sarepul province, under the DFID funded project. In this meeting head of Community Development Councils, District Development Assembly (DDA), Agriculture Department Representatives, National and International NGOs operating in Gosfandi and Sancharak districts such as ZOA & PMU and HiH Af beneficiaries from SHGs participated.
The event started by a presentation from district staff explaining goals of HiH Af, importance and role of associations on the top of SHGs, importance of access to credit through savings and utilizing domestic products and understanding local market demands, followed by a speech from Mr. Fazul Ahmad representative of Gosfandi district Agriculture Department. He said that “HiH Af is implementing a fundamental project, it changes and promotes life of the most vulnerable and marginalized people with focus on women”. He also encouraged rural women to actively take part in the project and promised his continues cooperation.
The meeting concluded after a question and answer session where participants asked for clarification about associations that were answered by the relevant staff.
Provincial figures of Internal Saving and Loans:
Savings (AFN):
- Sarepul Province: 725,965
- Samangan Province:530,850
- Balkh Province: 280,200
Amount of Loans (AFN):
- Sarepul Province: 922,210
- Samangan Province: 225,800
- Balkh Province: 259,500
