by Mona Chamass (from Lebanon), UNV Specialist in Income Generation and Employment

02 September 1998

Bonn, Germany: This is a story about Alaf, a 20-year old seamstress from Yemen. Alaf is deaf. She finished two years of vocational training in sewing in the Martyr Fadel El Halali Centre for vocational training for the disabled. The centre was established in 1989 by a UNDP/ILO project in co-operation with the Ministry of Social Affairs in Sana'a, Yemen. Alaf graduated from the centre in 1990. Three years later, she started a one-room-workshop in her house with her first sewing-machine. Her brother helped her running the workshop. By now, it is generating income for her and her eight sisters and brothers, as well as her parents. Alaf and I met in 1997, when the second UNDP/ILO project in co-operation with the Ministry of Social Affairs was under way in the Martyr Fadel El Halali Centre. Having previously done social work with blind people in my home country, Lebanon, I came to Yemen as as UNV specialist on income generation and employment. Here, I am one of four UNV specialists who work in vocational training with disabled people. I went to see Alaf in her workshop to identify activities which might be replicated and to possibly support Alaf in expanding her business which would in turn create further jobs.

After some visits, it became obvious that Alaf's business could easily be scaled up, but she needed start-up funds to buy more machines and develop her business to meet the demands of a growing clientele. After Alaf and I completed a detailed feasibility and marketing study, we were sure that if she found an institution willing to give her a loan, she would be able to pay it back with interest. We looked for potential loaning institutions in Yemen. Alaf finally decided to apply to the Small Enterprise Development Unit (SEDU), a Yemeni semi-governmental small and medium loan institution which is partly funded by the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). Alaf obtained the loan. She bought further sewing machines, hired an assistant, and allocated another room in her house for her business. Here, she can receive customers, among them a former UNV staff member from the USA: when she got married in Yemen, she turned to Alaf to have her wedding gown made. Alaf repaid her loan ahead of schedule. On UN Day 1997, she received an Achievement Award from UNDP for her hard work and enthusiasm.