Rural women’s Meena Bazaar opens Saturday

The event offers various activities like display of arts, crafts, apparels, food stalls, live music shows and games

ISLAMABAD: Meena Bazaar, a two-day cultural festival will start from November 10 featuring a large collection of arts, crafts, apparels, accessories and variety of food items by rural crafts women.

The event has been arranged by Behbud Association at Fatima Jinnah Park for families to raise funds for Behbud's projects, which help empower women, educate children, improve health and enable communities to thrive and succeed.

Behbud Association's programmes provide medical care, education, vocational training and income generation opportunities. The event offers various activities like display of arts, crafts, apparels, food stalls, live music shows, games, magic shows and fun activities, said Admiral (R) Muhammed Mushtaq Rashid, Executive Director Behbud Association of Pakistan.

Since 1967, Behbud's mission is to empower women by providing health, education, income-generation and vocational training to the less fortunate, "We give lifelong skills to women in our largest Industrial home establish at Rawalpindi while those who cannot join industrial home, are allowed for home based working. The products made them are not only for income generation, but they focus on maintaining identity of dying crafts and unique embroidery," he said.

As many as 100 stalls will be displayed to engage youngsters in healthy activities in cultural environment. These stalls will also exhibit a variety of items related to women and children including dresses, handbags, home textiles and garments to provide the buyers with an opportunity to get perfect extravaganza as well as source for respectful earning to the rural women.



Behbud Association of Pakistan is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-political organization working for the support and strength for women in order to empower them through direct investment in the total socio-economic development of marginalized communities living in densely populated urban slums and various rural areas via educational programmes and Behbud home and model schools, vocational training and health development programmes.

This initiative strengthens the socio-economic empowerment of women enabling them to play a more constructive role. Behbud trains the women and then employs them, which in turn generates income for them and uplifts them financially, resulting in greater self-esteem and a skill in hand which can sustain them for life.

The crafts women were trained in vocational centres to make items according to the fashion needs in order to get better sales and income generation. The trainers of vocational training are supported through industrial home established across the country to encourage employment for low income families in the field of garment making and traditional embroideries, which are modernized into contemporary designs.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2018.