Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (December29, 2009) – UNDP Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) together with the Asian Development Bank regional project “Rural Women Empowerment in Central Asia” conducted training on using ala-kiyiz technology for making items tailored to modern European market. The participants of the training were rural women-entrepreneurs from the UNDP PRP target villages of Uzgen and Karasuu rayon, Osh and Talas oblast, engaged in felt work. Fourteen felt craftswomen participated in the training.
This activity of UNDP and ADB efforts to work with the poor households and develop entrepreneurship in the villages. It was initiated by rural women, who turned to PRP with a request to support craftswomen to build their capacity in wool processing and home-based items making.
Working with felt is known for its very long laborious process. The process of wool preliminary preparation requires a lot of time. Central Asia Craft Support Association representative, well-known craftswoman of ala-kiyiz carpets, clothes and other felt items – Kenjekan Toktosunova shared the secrets of felt fancywork. The training agenda consisted of theoretical and practical parts. Participants were provided with handouts containing information on wool preparation, production quality and approaches of making the items using seamless technique, i.e. making seamless items. Then, participants moved to practical part of the training and made ala-kiyiz carpets and learned to work with felt using needles. During the training, the craftswomen made 7 ala-kiyiz carpets in accordance with the European standards, now their works look more interesting and fresh.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – is the UN global system in the development sphere, addressing to the positive changes in peoples’ life, providing the countries-members an access to the sources of knowledge, experience and resources. Our activity is on the territory of 166 countries, contributing to searching for the global and national issues in the development sphere. During the potential development process, the countries use an experience and skills of the UNDP staff and its partners’ community.
Learn more from Aida Mambetkulova at 653270 (105) or intern@prp.undp.kg.
