PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The Paktya Director of Sports at Forward Operating Base Gardez, Afghanistan received a large order of athletic equipment, including jerseys, put together by a women’s tailoring class, June 15.
The Paktya Provincial Reconstruction Team hired Abdul Razzaq, an Afghan contractor with King’s Cross Construction Company, for the procurement project.
The $52,532 contract included a mandate for Razzaq to hire women in a tailoring program in the northern district of Jaji to make the athletic jerseys.
According to U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Craig Newman, PRT project manager for the contract, and a native of Jacksonville, Fla., the 70-day project employed 47 women.
“The women had just completed tailoring training and we figured it would be great to start them off with a project. The timing worked out really well,” said Newman.
The PRT also funded the five-month women’s tailoring training.
“There are a lot of poor women like us, and we want to help our families make money and to make our country better,” said the Afghan supervisor of the tailoring program. “We hope to get more contracts in the future to make goods for people who need them.”
Newman said cultural sensitivities and the remote location of the village where the tailoring program operates prevented the PRT from having direct interaction with the women. All coordination with the supervisor of the tailoring program had to be conducted through the contractor.
“The women were very cooperative and very happy to do the project,” said Razzaq.
The supervisor of the tailoring program said the women in her program cut all of the fabric and did most of the sewing for the jerseys. However, the women only have hand-crank sewing machines and only did basic stitches.
“We don’t have the right equipment to do stronger zigzag stitching. We sent the jerseys to Kabul to have the sewing finished and the printing done,” she said.
The women made uniforms in various sizes and colors. All of the jerseys are numbered and have the Afghan flag printed on the front and the name of the province printed on the back below the numbers.
“The way they printed the name of Paktya and Afghanistan on there will give kids a sense of pride,” said Razzaq.
Once delivered to FOB Gardez, the PRT reviewed the order of uniforms, soccer balls and cricket sets to ensure everything requested in the contract was delivered before handing it to Haji Aminullah Alamyar, the Paktya Director of Sports.
Alamyar said he requested the project from the PRT to promote athletic programs for Paktya’s youth and to show support for smaller villages that can’t afford uniforms and equipment.
“We have 22 different sports teams in Paktya, including volleyball, soccer, cricket, basketball and Kung Fu,” said Alamyar. “We are going to give these uniforms and equipment to the teams that can’t afford them and really need them.”
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.17.2011 16:52 |
| Story ID: | 72283 |
| Location: | PAKTYA PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 49 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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