Zardozi is a registered Afghan non-govermental Organisation

It started as an income generating project set up 26 years ago to assist some of the women in the hundreds of thousands of families which poured across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan when fighting started.
Today thousands of poor Afghan women earn a steady income from embroidery and handicraft production thanks to Zardozi.

The money which the women get from producing and selling embroidery andhandicraft empowers them in many diverse ways. Many of the women use their income to support their children’s education, in particular taking their children away from carpet work and sending them to school. Other women spend money on pregnancy check ups – often for the first time in their lives despite multiple pregnancies. All of the women describe having an income of their own as life changing in terms of achieving status as individuals in their families and communities and allowing them some control over their own lives.

Zardozi support to women producers of handicrafts and clothing occurs in several ways. Several thousand women for example, produce directly for the Zardozi shop located in Kabul. This shop sells mostly to foreigners and exports in a small way. Women working for the shop live in rural areas in eastern Afghanistan and in the refugee camps in border areas. They are almost 100% illiterate and most have never visited a clinic or a doctor in their lives.
Zardozi also works with approximately 1,000 other women who live closer to markets in poor urban areas.

Zardozi assists these women to start small businesses selling handicrafts and clothing to shopkeepers and traders. These women also lead lives of chronic poverty and isolation before finding this source of income. Finally Zardozi works with more than 20 very small businesses in the handicraft sector helping them to improve their business and production skills so that they can increase their profits and expand.