Alumna Spearheads a Dynamic Crafts Bazaar for Artisans in KP

Taking the time out to leave a sick husband and school-going children behind was not easy for artisan Azra Shaheen. Faced with considerable financial difficulties, she had started her own business producing handmade bed sheets in a village in Nowshera four months ago, and was now looking for opportunities to polish her marketing skills.

So in the second week of January, she went everyday to the Women Business Development Center at SMEDA in Peshawar, to attend a training workshop and an exhibition. Like Shaheen, 19 other female artisans from five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa converged at the center seeking a better life and a brighter future.

The week-long training project called “Crafts Bazaar” was the brainchild of International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumna Nabeela Nuzhat Afridi and funded through an Alumni Small Grant from the Pakistan-U.S Alumni Network. Afridi was supported in her efforts by fellow IVLP alumna Nabila Safdar.

Nabeela Nuzhat Afridi leads an entrepreneurship session.

“I wanted to empower women from the marginalized classes through the Crafts Bazaar,” said Afridi. “These women have no means to market their products and network with other female entrepreneurs, so I wanted to provide them with a forum to achieve these goals.”

During the event, sessions were held on Basic Business Management skills, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Color Combination and Micro-Financing etc.  The participants received an opportunity to interact directly with the customers at an exhibition and learned the value of their products in the market.

They also learned how to better negotiate the fees that the vendors and middlemen were taking for their services, in order to increase their profit margins.

Faiza Rehman, who makes decoration items like wall hangings, said she benefited the most from the session on color combination and also found the information on the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme useful. The scheme in question has a 50 percent quota reserved for women.

The artisan from Haripur was also delighted by the feedback she received during the exhibition. “I received a number of orders from the customers who were interested in my decoration pieces,” said Rehman.

Participants of Crafts Bazaar developed linkages with professionals from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women Entrepreneurship Center

Tahira Jameel who provides vocational training to females, accompanied some of her artisans from Charsadda, to the workshop. She said the best aspect of the bazaar was that the women were able to both sell their handicrafts and network with entrepreneurs from other districts of the province.But at the end of the day, it was the shoppers who made the workshop truly profitable.

A customer Javeria Rehman said the products that she had seen at the expo were of a much better quality than some of the stuff that she had witnessed at branded exhibitions.

“I found so many varieties of clothes under one roof at the Crafts Bazaar and some of them are from areas which are not easily accessible,” she said. “For example I bought kurtas from Haripur and hand-woven stolls from Swat and ended up spending Rs. 25,000 at the event.”

Another customer Sarah Irshad said she visited the exhibition because she wanted to encourage the female artisans hailing from underprivileged areas. She also believed that from a shopper’s perspective attending the event was beneficial.

“The mukesh (cloth) here is of very good quality and prices of various items at the Crafts Bazaar are even lower than the market price,” said Irshad.

The event was so successful that according to Afridi, each participant ended up earning 70,000 to 80,000 rupees on average. One of them even received an offer for a job. The IVLP alumna says she feels proud about the successful culmination of the exhibition.

“The process of getting an Alumni Small Grant was very convenient and it was just a dream come true, when we were able to practically implement the Crafts Bazaar,” said Afridi. “I received such encouragement from this project, that now I will work for my bigger plans to materialize.”

IVLP Alumna Nabila Safdar delivers a lecture on “Basics of Business Management and Marketing” during the Crafts Bazaar.

Her immediate concern is ensuring that the artisans receive an opportunity to showcase their products in outlets of prominent fashion designers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

But for now, participants like Shaheen are not looking so far ahead in the future and are pleased with the training they received at the exhibition.

“Before attending the Crafts Bazaar, I did not know how to talk to customers and sell my products. But now I know how to interact with clients and also how to purchase items,” she said.

Shaheen has been so heartened by the response that she received at the event that she eventually wants to set up her own outlet to display her work, and will continue to receive guidance from dynamic alumni like Afridi.