As a child, Sifat Gul was inspired by watching her mother work as a tailor from home.
Sifat lives in Garam Chashma, Chitral, in northwest Pakistan. It’s one of the highest human settlements in the Hindu Kush mountain range, at an altitude of almost 2,550 metres.
In mountainous and remote areas like Chitral, there are limited employment opportunities due to factors like low levels of industrialization and inadequate transportation infrastructure. For women, entrenched patriarchal norms and cultural, traditional, and religious values also limit their participation in the labour force.
But thanks to women like Sifat, this is slowly changing.
In 2001, Sifat took out a loan from The First MicroFinance Bank, a part of the Aga Khan Development Network. With the loan, she bought her first sewing machine, and launched her tailoring business.
With the income from her business, Sifat was able to support her household’s basic needs, including covering the costs related to education and health.
Since then, she has grown her small home business into a training institute for women who want to learn tailoring, embroidery, fashion design, and knitting.
Sifat runs a hostel on the first floor of her institute for those who travel long distances to train at her institute. She also offers a daycare centre for working mothers.
Thanks to Sifat, over 2,800 women and girls in the region have been trained in textile work – some of whom still work for Sifat, and some of whom have gone on to work independently in their own villages.
Thanks to support from Canada, women like Sifat are leading transformative change.