Iraqi Charities Forum - The Charity Bank for Small Businesses
On Saturday 18th September the management of the Charity Bank for Small Businesses held an extensive meeting with its first group of women who are being sponsored by the project. The meeting, which took place in Al-Graiaat at the Baghdad headquarters of the Protect the People from Pollution organisation, was attended by most of the seamstresses that are taking part in the project, along with the president and members of the managerial committee of the Protect the People from Pollution organisation and a representative for the Iraqi Charities Forum. The meeting was called to discuss the timeframe and apparatus needed for developing the next phase of the Charity Bank.
A week before the meeting, questionnaires were given out to the participating women in order to evaluate the project. The women brought the questionnaires to the meeting but in case there was any confusion regarding certain questions the Forum’s representative went through each questionnaire with the woman who filled it in. However, the women showed good comprehension in selecting the correct response that best reflected their opinions. Only a few of the women needed the questionnaire explaining again in order to select the response they wanted.
After the questionnaires had been discussed with the attendees, the Forum’s representative likened the project to a triangle with each side of the triangle representing the different people involved in the project. The first side represents the Iraqi Charities Forum, the second side the Protect the People from Pollution organisation (which has been leading the project in its initial stages) and the third side represents the seamstresses who have been leading the actual process of the project. The third side is the most important one in the entire triangle as it is the key factor in the project’s success, which all comes down to the ability of the seamstresses and the hard work they have put into producing top-quality products.
Mrs Zahraa Al-Bassam, who is one of the first volunteers in the next round of participants, told us she is going to run an intensive sewing training course to teach and qualify any women who need it. The course will focus on how to make new types of tailored products to meet the demands of market and customers. The time and place have already been confirmed, and the course will most likely start early next month. 17 trainees will be taking part, with a mixed level of tailoring experience ranging from beginners to amateurs who wish to improve their skills.
Mrs Al-Bassam, who is herself a participant in the project, said that she wants to move away slightly from the traditional tailoring model of sewing children’s clothes to more sophisticated designs such as wedding dresses, with which she is very experienced. According to Mrs Al-Bassam, the income from these dresses will be much higher than those of the ordinary designs and they can be both sold and hired out at very good prices. She said she was amazed by the excellent turn-out from the participants along with their high commitment and strong desire to improve their skills and progress.
The Forum’s representative then introduced the idea of the Continuous Charity Market and its importance as a sort of gateway through which customers can find products, and products can respond to the demands of customers. Most of the women attending were in favour of the idea. He also stressed the need for a woman with experience in sewing and tailoring to take on the job of running the market, and be responsible for collecting and pricing the products. The participants were asked to apply for the position if they felt they were willing and qualified to achieve the Charity’s desired aims. One of the ladies expressed her interest in the role and said that she was ready to take on all the associated responsibilities. A group of the women recommended her and said she was the best person for the job as she has set a good example by her generosity in kindly helping five of the women learn the art of tailoring.
The women’s main request was for them to be given the green light to start making clothes, since they all made a good profit from their previous work. Nonetheless, they were asked to take things slowly as research needs to be carried out to find out the market’s main requirements at the moment, especially as the new school term is about to start. Therefore, they may be asked to make school uniforms for the time being. This could be part of a short term project in agreement with schools or local education authorities in various areas in Baghdad, which may see orphans in selected schools being supplied with free school uniforms. The seamstresses were very keen on this idea and said they were completely prepared to do whatever is asked of them if it means helping those who are really in need of their products.
The questionnaire:
42 women were given questionnaires to complete. 37 completed the questionnaire while five women failed to bring it with them to the meeting. The questionnaire included 13 questions about the project itself, each with a choice of four possible answers, which were indicated by writing “Yes” or ticking the box. The remaining four questions requested participants’ personal details, i.e. their name and age, relationship status, financial status and skill level.
Below are the most important findings from the questionnaire:
-100% of the participants said that they prefer to do their tailoring work at home.
-98% said that they prefer to have their products sold via the Charity Market.
-98% believed that it was easy to pay back the loan instalments and they had no problem saving up for them.
-94% agreed that the support offered by their supervisors was very good.
-92% believed that the profits they have earned from the project have improved their living standards considerably.
-90% believed that they sold their products at very good prices.
-60% said that they prefer to use fabric supplied by the project, while 40% prefer to use their own as the fabric provided by the project was not good enough.
-55% said that they have found customers (most of them relatives) through the project.
Overall the results of the survey are encouraging as they clearly show that the project has made noticeable progress and that we are continuing to work hard to achieve the best for the women taking part and to focus on the issues they have identified themselves.
We should point out that in both the survey and the open meeting afterwards, we encouraged the women to avoid compliments and say what they really thought. This would help us clearly highlight any problem areas. The women were even allowed to change their answers in case they had misunderstood a question the first time. This allowed us to gauge the general impression towards the project. It turns out that the flaws identified are minor in comparison with the project’s success, which has surpassed our expectations.
Walid Abd Al-Amir
19/9/2010
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