Madina Association is a non-political organization that helps vulnerable Afghan women become self-sustainable by promoting literacy, health education, life skills and basic business training. Madina offers nearly 200 women in Kabul City and the nearby villages of Waisalabad, Qarabagh, and Kumeeta-e Wardak the chance to improve their living conditions with free classes in tailoring, handicrafts and jewelry making. Once artisans are fully trained, they enjoy steady work embroidering scarves and shawls or creating exquisite jewelry using fluorite, lapis, carnelian, quarts, turquoise, and other locally-sourced semiprecious stones. Madina also trains teenage students in jewelry making and pays students a monthly stipend with meals for the days they come to learn.

Today, Afghanistan most often conjures images of war, destruction, and poverty. Unemployment is one of the biggest problems in Afghanistan, a country where even educated people don’t find jobs easily. The lack of work opportunities especially affects women, many of whom never received a formal education and now find themselves widowed and/or disabled by war, and the sole providers for their families.

As such, women who have lost their husbands, fathers and brothers in war typically suffer from economic and mental depression.  For the female artisans at Madina, working with Madiina is more than a well-paying job – it’s a place to share their problems and enjoy fellowship and solidarity while they create contemporary necklaces, bracelets and earrings to bring Afghanistan’s traditional crafts into the 21^st century.