Project Alipur: Women artisans exhibit their work for ‘city customers’

LAHORE:

An exhibition of work by women artisans from Muzaffargarh district began at 10-Q in Gulberg on Wednesday. 

The exhibition, titled Humnawa, is a result of the joint effort of the students and faculty of Beaconhouse National University, the Sungi Development Foundation and the Bunyad Foundation, who worked with more than 200 women from Alipur for eight months on a project to enhance their skills.

According to the organisers, the project aimed at providing these women an opportunity to better adapt to the demands of the fashion market.

Under an initiative by the Punjab Skills Development Fund, these 200 women were trained in various skills and product development to cater to the demands of the market under a programme the organisers named: The Alipur Project.

Experts from eight art centres were employed to train these women to incorporate popular trends in their work.

Bunyad Foundation, an NGO which has been working in Muzaffargarh district for the past five years, provided its infrastructure for the project.

“It was natural for us to be on board ...we were already working on several projects there,” Qasim Rabbani, who is managing the project under Bunyad, said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Rabbani said that 25 women were trained at each of the eight centres. He hoped that six of these would be able to sustain themselves.

“The project is about empowering women from this area,” Faseeh Saleem from the faculty of Textile Design, Fibre and Fashion Studies Department at the BNU said.

Saleem and Rohma Moeed Khan supervised 13 students who trained the women.

“The ride was not very smooth,” Saleem said.

Given the high crime rate in Alipur, it was challenging to convince the parents.

Eventually, Saleem said, the organisers managed to persuade some parents.

“Once we were there, we realised the need for many more projects of this kind,” he said.

The participating students provided their creative input to the artisans who were trained to incorporate those designs in their products.

Almost 400 products, including bags, cushion covers, wallets and lampshades, are on display at the exhibition.

Hina Yasmeen, an instructor at the Punjab Skills Development Fund, said the proceeds from the sales of these products will go directly to the artisans. Yasmeen, who is based in Alipur, said the project had helped the artisans develop a sense of the market demand.

“The biggest difficulty was to make them understand that the buyers’ tastes may be different from theirs,” she said.

She said the artisans were taught how to work with colours preferred by city people.

“They preferred flower patterns in embroidery. We asked them to incorporate birds and butterflies.”

As many as 16 artisans from these art centres have been in Lahore since Sunday.

Abida Parveen, one of these artisans, said the project had helped her align her work with the market.

“We had no idea that by slightly changing the patterns and colours, our products would attract people here so much more,” she said.

Another artisan, Azra Rehman, said the project had helped her sell her products at a higher price.

The exhibition will continue till October 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2012.