Rebuilding Impacted Female Lives in Pakistan
Donation protected
Recent unprecedented floods in Pakistan have displaced over 33 million people, roughly
5 million families. Many rural families are primarily run by vulnerable women struggling to provide without a roof over their heads. Those affected are also losing their lives to disease outbreaks, shortage of medicines and malnutrition. With winter approaching, a new set of challenges will emerge.
Our wonderful friend and aunt Zein Ahmed founded LOVEHANDMADE.CO (LH) during the pandemic. Given our own Pakistani links through friends and family, we’ve spent countless hours discussing Zein’s passion for empowering Pakistani female artisans. She created it to empower Pakistani women and provide them with an income stream where they are paid a fair wage. They create traditional wears, a craft handed down by their mothers for generations. LOVEHANDMADE, being a socially conscious enterprise, guides these artisans to compete in the modern marketplace, negotiate with predatory middlemen and forge beneficial linkages with businesses.
How can you help?
Post-flood, these female artisans need tools to work, hope and find a way to move forward. LOVEHANDMADE currently works with roughly 300 artisans, aiding around 2,400 people in total (8 people per house). LH is embedded in several villages in the flood-affected areas and needs to restart the work order process for them, as well as help plan for their future. It will do this by providing cash grants, raw materials and tools for the women who lost so much. You will provide immediate help! Other charities or aid take time to reach those in need, especially the villages LH is connected with. A $50 dollar cash injection into the business of one woman will produce a $200 sale, which is a 4-fold profit margin over two months.
Once we get orders, tools and materials for these women (by the way, only 1 in 10 have husbands bringing in any income), they can get back to being self-sustaining. The hope is that within 2-3 years they can rebuild while caring for their families with dignity.
Organizers,
Laurel Murray
Mirdad Samad
Samara Islam
Bella Rissman
Hana Rashid
Azad Latif
Find more about Lovehandmade.co and the work of female artisans of LoveHandmade’s community at:
Fundraising team: LoveHandMade (2)
Laurel Katz
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
Azad Latif
Team member