Yulia and Valya have been neighbors in the same town for more than 20 years.  Yulia is 65 and has spent years doing construction work.  Her son left for Russia and has not communicated with his mother.  Yulia should receive a pension but she can’t find her paperwork.  She is getting less steady on her feet and uses a walker. 

Her friend Valya, in her 50s, is an early retiree from teaching.  Valya’s son, aged 24, has cerebral palsy.  Valya sends him to the bazaar with just enough money to buy bread and potatoes. 

Yulia didn’t have a job for months until Operation Mercy’s Dushanbe office partnered with the local disabled society and provided funding and consultation to start a sewing workshop making bed sheets.  Yulia was one of four disabled women chosen for a job because she had skills as a seamstress and lived near the little workshop building.  Her friend Valya works there as a volunteer helping to support the four ladies who have sewn more than 1,000 sheet sets in about six months.

It is beautiful to see how Valya helps Yulia at the workshop, how Yulia faithfully travels to work using her walker, and how 84 disabled people have applied to the workshop, not for aid, but for a job!

For rural Bedouin women the opportunity for work and personal development while fulfilling their duties inside the home is nearly impossible.  Working outside the home is not generally accepted as an honourable practice for married women.  The cross-stitch project that Operation Mercy has implemented is currently employing 25 Bedouin ladies.  Through this project these ladies are able to work inside the home, develop themselves, and earn a small income.  

In Shomerea, Operation Mercy Jordan’s local helper, Um Heisen, is improving her ability to organize the cross-stitch work and manage the ladies who sew in the village by herself.  She now understands why the women should have ownership of the project in order to sustain it without help from foreign staff.  The project is encouraging more ladies by improving not only their own skills, but also their self-confidence.

Operation Mercy staff has been adjusting and building strategic relationships with the ladies involved. The orders are increasing, resulting in a higher income. Um Heisen who carries the responsibility and accountability for this work, has been able to organize and control the quality of the handcrafted products.

“The little boy reached out and touched my hand to avoid a collision.  He is visually impaired, like nearly all of the 118 students at the regional boarding school for the blind. Some children are completely blind, while others only need strong glasses and large print. Those with better vision act as buddies to those with less sight. They walk in pairs and trios from the dorm to classes and then to the lunch room. It was heartwarming to see the children helping each other without complaining."

Operation Mercy Tajikistan was there with its local partner, the Blind Society of Dushanbe, to distribute Braille books for second grade reading and math. The primary grades' teacher smiled happily when she learned she had new Braille books in the local language for her students. The Blind Society has a Braille printer and trained staff to reproduce books in Braille. Operation Mercy funded the special paper and some other production costs.

This partnership is exciting because it meets two goals with one simple project:

• Supporting educational achievement for visually-impaired children
• Steady employment for its 3 to 4 printing workshop staff, most of whom are visually-impaired

As the kids are buddies for walking to class, so Operation Mercy works with local organizations to reach mutual goals. The next task is to supply third grade books!

Imagine 35 of the poorest families in a rural community on the edge of Taiz, Yemen being given the opportunity to loan 5 female goats. The reason the goats are called loans is because the recipient family must give back to the organization exactly what it received. The loan price amounts to the first five female kids that these goats produce. These five female kids are given to another low-income family and the process continues indefinitely.

The benefits are multi faceted. Once the initial loan is paid back, all following offspring and the original goats are owned by the families, hence providing a source of income generation. Each loan repayment allows a new family to embrace the revolving goat loan scheme and no significant initial financial investment is outlaid.

Training is given to recipient families which includes animal husbandry skills and a required financial management component. Regular documentation of each animal is carried out by follow-up officers who visit each family monthly and record growth and progress of the goats.

What can be done with fresh fruit that does not sell at the local market?

Many farmers in the Pamir region of Tajikistan are not able to sell up to 60 percent of their fruit due to low demands for fresh products. The answer: produce a quality dried-fruit product that can be sold in the local market and in other areas around the country throughout the year. Our project is designed to help farmers in the region add value to their current percentage of wasted produce.

Operation Mercy is training local farming people about general dehydration theory, clean drying practices, fruit preparation, vegetable drying and solar dryer operation. To date, this project has developed two styles of solar dryers built from low cost, local materials. One large-capacity dryer is for farmers who have many fruit trees and can dry enough fruit for personal and commercial use. The other small dryer is designed for individuals who are interested in drying fruit on a small-scale basis for personal use. We offer the plans for both models of the fruit dryers to the trained participants.

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Meet Irina - she received a sewing machine from Operation Mercy to help with her family's income. She is one of five children in a family living in the Fayzobod district. Two of her brothers are mildly disabled. The younger brother attends school while the older brother, who has a speech problem, is unable to find work. Irina has taken the initiative to learn to sew by being an apprentice under an experienced seamstress. When we came to monitor her progress, she was excited to show us a dress she was making to order. She earns several dollars for each sewing job. She doesn't buy the latest music with her profits, but instead buys flour, sugar or other staples for her family. It's great to see how a simple sewing machine can bring new skills, confidence and some extra income into this family's situation.

By helping this family with disabled children to develop a micro business, one of the goals of this project is being realized.

In 2011, Tajik farming entrepreneurs planted donated seeds as part of an agricultural pilot project. Seeds were donated by a Californian farmer. He heard an Operation Mercy staff member speaking to a group in the USA about the need for crops in Central Asia that don't require irrigation but perform well with natural rain.

The answer: dry land bean seeds! Three varieties of donated beans were tested in a number of regions in Tajikistan. Results are being gathered from several villages and from the garden of a school for the visually impaired.

Dry beans are locally accepted foods that are often used in soups, store well through winter and have a high nutritional content. These new varieties could provide just what is needed to supplement the local diet.

The Poverty Reduction Pilot Project in Yemen aims to address the economic crisis and high unemployment rates by income-generation whereby small-business loans are provided in partnership with a local NGO. Promising individual entrepreneurs will be assisted in improving or starting up such businesses by matching their own dollar-for-dollar investment in their business and have a set repayment period of 12 months. Loan follow-up officers, administered by way of the local NGO, will follow-up with periodic personal visits and document the progress and repayment process for each loan recipient. Financial management training will be offered and required for each project participant. The project will provide financial management education and implement techniques for more efficient use of financial resources on the part of community members.

'The women are discovering that they have good ideas, that they can contribute to the household income and produce beautiful, quality products '.

Currently, 25 Bedouin women are participating in the Operation Mercy cross stitch project. They sew and cross stitch items such as purses and bags in different sizes and traditional designs, bookmarks and wall hangings. Items are sold to both locals and foreigners.

Take a look at their 'facebook' page with more contact details.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nabadia-Craft-Jordan/129168973817011?sk=info

Haneen was very happy when she was given cross-stitch work for the first time. She learned to do cross-stitch when she was young, maybe in 7th grade. She once said, "nobody trusted me to do something well. But you gave me work and you like my work. That has given me self confidence."

Natalie's family has to live on very little money. When her mother has no work picking olives or harvesting vegetables, there is hardly any income. So Natalie gives the money she earns from the project to her mother to buy food and clothes for her siblings. Once in a while she can save up to buy something for herself.

Shori started her last year of school after the summer. With the money she earns from the project she can buy the school books she needs and is able to finish school studies and work. She is determined to make a better life for herself.

The traditional housing of the Wakhi people of Afghanistan, consists of a house with only one large room for sleeping, eating, cooking and everything else for the average 20 family members. In the middle of the room is a stove (tandur) used for baking bread, cooking and heating, but without any installation facilitating smoke extraction, these houses are often filled with smoke. Smoke pollution is a dangerous threat to good health. By decreasing smoke pollution, it has proven to reduce related lung illnesses and at times mortality in children and adults.

It became clear that with some help, the local Wakhi people could easily modify their stoves to effectively reduce the amount of smoke pollution inside the house.

In 2007, after consultation with the local community, a first stove was modified. By supplying a stove door, a water container/heater and 3 metres of pipe, the formally open fire now becomes a new closed system. In addition to a smokefree environment, families have warm water from the installed water container/ heater.

Since 2009 more than 320 Wakhi households received the materials to make their tandur smokeless.

In 2010 and 2011, six Wakhi men were trained to build these materials locally. The stove door is now modified so that it can be produced in the Wakhan without the help of electricity. These Wakhi tinsmiths will produce materials for another 150 households. They also learned to produce other tin materials, such as stoves out of barrels, buckets and metal trunks to supplement the family income in the future.

When we were distributing the first materials, one man came and literally took the materials out of our hands. He said he had been trying to build something like this himself. His children are still crying and suffering from the smoke inside his house. Now he is really happy!