Mrs. Parwin, daughter of Gul Mohammad, is a 40-year-old woman living with her husband and eight children in Sheer Abad Turkmania village, Balkh province. As a member of the Bakhtawar Self-Help Group (SHG), Parwin has found new avenues for supporting her family. Her husband and elder sons work as daily wage laborers with wheelbarrows in the city, but their income is inconsistent, sometimes sufficient to feed the family and other times not.
Parwin’s family is delighted with her involvement in the women’s empowerment project, seeing it as a beacon of hope for all of them. “The food package distribution was very helpful for our family because we did not have to purchase our food items in retail for a month as usual,” Parwin shared. She also expressed her optimism about the project’s provision of saplings and kitchen gardening tools: “By planting trees, our children will have access to three types of fruit at home, and we will not have to buy vegetables from the market once we cultivate the seeds.”
Since joining the SHG, Mrs. Parwin has taken out two loans. The first loan, amounting to AFN 6,000 (USD 69), allowed her to buy a goat. Soon after, the goat gave birth, and now Parwin has two goats, which have proven to be a profitable investment. The second loan of AFN 10,000 (USD 114) was used by her husband to purchase rice seeds for cultivation. Both Parwin and her husband are hopeful that they will be able to sell their cultivated rice at a good price during the rice selling season.
Through the empowerment project and her active participation in the SHG, Mrs. Parwin is creating a more stable and prosperous future for her family. The ability to take loans from Self-Help Groups is a crucial factor in empowering women like Parwin, enabling them to contribute significantly to their household’s income. This financial support fosters a sense of independence and confidence, allowing women to make meaningful economic contributions and improve their family’s overall well-being.
