Training on Sewing improves Rasha



 
Rasha Mohammad Ali is a Yemeni woman in her forties, who supports a family consisting of her husband (with chronic heart disease), 5 sons and 3 daughters.

Rasha and her family used to live in Haradh, Saada governorate, but war forced them to flee to Qamal camp in the Al-Talh area, Sahar district. Heading her family,
she tried to cope with displacement, which she describes as harsh and tiring because she had to endure many life difficulties.

Fortunately, Rasha was nominated to join a training program on capacity building in livelihood skills (sewing), implemented by the National Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Response, targeting 140 IDPs in 7 professions within the activities of the Camp Management Support Project and the Simple Maintenance of Displaced Community Sites, in the districts of Sahar and Safra, and funded by Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF).

When the media team of NFDHR visited Rasha, she was sitting behind her sewing machine in the corner of her tent, and displaying some of her products behind her.

Rasha recalls her first day of training: "I was afraid that I could not learn ... I did not know anything about sewing, not even how to hold the scissors."

Rasha expresses her gratitude and appreciation to the sewing trainer, Mona Ali Gibran, who was present during the documentation of the story.

The trainer, Mona, expresses her admiration for Rasha's skills and her ability to develop herself, design and sew dresses and clothes that meet the demand of women and girls in Qamal camp.

The trainer recalls the first day she saw Rasha in the training, saying, "She was afraid that she could not understand anything about sewing and thought that it was a complicated profession."

She added, "I tried to simplify the matter for her and assure her that sewing is a simple profession and that we all had the same feeling at the beginning; and advised her to focus during theory and practice sessions; and to ask about anything she could not understand."

Regarding the skills that the displaced women were trained on, the trainer says, "At first, they were taught to take measurements on paper, to measure shoulder width, chest width, chest length and overall body length. They were taught how to correctly hold scissors, cut fabric and use the sewing machine, whether manual or electric, as well as fixing minor problems with the machine.

Rasha is currently working on buying cloth and sewing dresses for the little girls and women in the camp according to their desire.

Rasha confirms that she is "able to make three dresses a day for little girls, and that she sells one dress at a price ranging from 1000-1500 riyals, depending on the type of fabric and design."