Report from BHW Field Director Following Visit 8-10 March 2016

Key person: Azam Gill

Recent Events

Sewing Centres

The projects in the four villages continue to train people. Sunny, the guy who was overseeing the work has gone to Saudi Arabia for work so Azam is starting to work with another young guy, Wikram. His role is to visit around the groups monthly, deliver the funds on a monthly basis and sort out any issues in conjunction with Azam. 

I visited all four of the current groups. The funds we sent were for two groups but the villages in which the programme was due to stop were so upset that they have decided to continue them. People are being deeply affected by these sewing programmes.  

BHW Visit

This is the first visit to this area by a BHW facilitator. It was planned to be here a year ago but a bomb in Lahore meant that it was not possible to come. The area is about 2 hours from Faisalabad. You go south from Faisalabad through the city of Gojra (pop. 120,000 people) and towards the city of Toba Tek Singh (pop. 1.6M people). This area is extremely fertile and is criss-crossed by an amazing irrigation canal system. It grows huge quantities of crops year round. There are many villages scattered across the countryside, most don’t have names, they are numbered in relation to the canal they are on. 

But one must not be fooled by this. These seemingly innocuous villages harbor many people. Some villages have more than 20,000 people in them, huge villages with few services. The majority of the adults are poor and illiterate, it’s from this area that Azam Gill came. 

Life in the village is very hard, especially for the women. Food preparation takes all day and they all seem to be working all day. But very inefficiently. People come and go constantly from the houses. There are usually numerous women in the home. When a daughter marries she goes off to the house of her in-laws and then does what she is told by the oldest women. Families have a major input into whom a son marries as the wife will have to fit in with the women and if she is not liked!!! She has to be compatible with the other women. 

The mother-in-law manages the household, organizing the chores, the food and managing whatever resources the men can bring home. The children are brought up by all the adults. They will usually go to any one of the adults around, not necessarily their birth parent. The kids belong to the family. The men are quite tender with the little ones picking them up, kissing them and carrying them around. Discipline is swift and harsh, but over quickly. The kids quickly learn their role and position in the family. 

Stories From the Four Villages

Village # 22 JB – Shahzada

This is Azam’s home village. There are about 10,000 people in the village, only about 80 or so are Christians. One sewing course has been run in this village and a second one is underway. From the two courses about 20 women have or will receive sewing machines and seven will only get certificates. 

The current course will probably be the last one as many other villages are crying out for the programme. The women in this group gathered to show off their wares and I have to say, some of the stuff they have made is pretty impressive. Most were wearing garments they had made themselves. In the second course some of the women learn here and some are at another place outside the village as it’s easier to take the programme to those women rather than for them to come every day. 

This is a group of really vibrant women with a fair bit of get up and go. They really want to start a shop in the village where they would sell the garments they are making. Some of them are really nice. Azam is going to do some research about the feasibility of doing that. There is no clothing shop in a village of 10,000 people so they think there is a market for it. The set up would require getting a building and material to start making garments. They would specialize in women’s and children’s clothes. 

Village # 152 G. B. 

They are into the second year of training here. This program is run by Alia, a single mother with two children. Her husband abandoned her and she was sent away from her in-laws back to her uncle as her parents are dead. A year ago she shifted to the house of her brother where the course is now being run. Alia is a hard-working, organized woman and the food she served, my goodness, it was beautiful. She has two children, Neesha who is 10 and Shroon who is 8.

Divorce is a very shameful thing, publically embarrassing and not common in the village. This village is quite large and there are about 300 Christians in it. All the women in this group are Christians, no Moslems. They are a tight group and while there we had to pray for a number of people who were sick, some seriously sick. 

There were 15 in the first year sewing course and there are eight in the second although more will join soon in summer. They love the training and are all making some money from sewing. 

Village # 321, J.B. Seowal 

This is a very poor little village on the side of the main highway. Shakeela runs this programme in a house owned by a really old couple. Shakeela learned to sew from someone who taught her individually. She is uneducated and cannot read or write. The first year had 12 students in it and the latest one has eight but some more will come soon. All of the students can read. They are a vibrant group who are excited by what they have learned and are able to do. They were all giggly and excited, I was the first white person they have ever seen. That was not uncommon amongst the young people.

Some of them are Moslems and we were invited to go visit one of the students and her family after we finished the visit to the centre. They were very hospitable and welcoming and a number of the family members came to see us. Breaking down barriers is one of the intended outcomes of the sewing classes. 

Village # 320 J.B.

Jasmin runs this little training programme. She is married with two children and her husband is a labourer. She learned to sew from a sewing centre run by her cousin when she was younger. She went to the sewing centre for three years.

In the first course here there were 18 students and this year there are eight although more will join in summer. They are three months into the course. None of the families in this group have land and all their fathers are daily labourers. They are all single women in this group. They were very proud of the garments they had made and all wanted photos taken to show off their wares.  

Partnership's Influence within the Community

This varies from village to village but generally the community is very positive towards this programme. In most of the programmes there are mainly Christians but a few Moslems as well. This is breaking down barriers between Christians and Moslems. 

Plans for the Future

I think this project has real merit. These people are pretty poor and the sewing gives them a tool to supplement very meagre household incomes. This is actually happening and the women are very excited about the difference it is making. 

Azam is going to monitor this more closely in the future after we noticed one or two little issues. He plans to shift the project to other villages once this year has been completed. 

Current Issues and Challenges

Bringing another person in to monitor the projects will cause a few issues.

They are planning to take the programmes out of some of these villages and do them in other villages. This may well cause disappointment for some people. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) That so many have been helped economically and are able to supplement their family incomes. 
2) Wisdom to know how to continue to grow this programme. There are many villages who want to run the programmes but it’s not very easy to set them up well from a distance. 
3) For a key person in this area to emerge so that Azam can trust them to follow the plan 

Comments

After the first year in two villages the idea was to shift to other villages but the people don’t like this and got very upset. So with basically the same amount of funding they are running programmes in four villages instead of two. They have done this by reducing the number of students in each location. However, they are going to have to stick with the plan to shift at the end of the next round. 

Azam and Barbara will be going out to the village again at Easter. They will do an assessment of the situation and come back with an amended plan for the future. There is a lot of room for expansion.