The author visited Afghanistan in 2003 as part of a U.S. delegation
focused on improving the lives of women. Her idea was to start a
business that would employ the women of that country to make a product
she could sell in the United States. Some locally woven rugs caught her
eye; she carried them back home and started looking for initial funding.
She set up a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and began working to construct an
entirely new and socially responsible supply chain. ARZU’s goal was to
create a sustainable business model linking well-paying jobs to
behaviors that over time would shift the cultural norm. The company
negotiated a “social contract” with male heads of household that set
conditions for women in the home to become its weavers: All children
(including girls) must attend government school full-time, and all adult
women must be “released” from the family compound to attend ARZU’s
literacy classes or for transport to medical clinics when pregnant. Once
the business model was in place, recruiting weavers required an
intensive, house-to-house outreach. But as word spread that the company
would pay the local rate as a salary (rather than piecework) and that
women could earn a bonus for highest-quality work, families sought to
join the program. Today ARZU has a waiting list. All the company’s
weavers are now literate (whereas 90% of Afghan women remain
illiterate), and 20% are putting a child through university. Working and
earning money has developed their dignity and self-esteem, and the men
of their villages have come to view them as capable human beings.
[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]