The story of a homeless woman who is now a supervisor: Sunlight improved Sakineh's life

Dehqan Weekly / Siddiq Khalid
Sakinah Askari is 28 years old and lives in Qala-e-Miyanah village, Yakawlang district of Bamyan province. He husband passed away via an illness about two years ago, and all family responsibilities, especially all of the family's livelihood were transferred to her. She now dries and sells fruits and vegetables in the sun with a machine which has been provided to her by the Ministry of Agriculture (MAIL), and her life got changed.
The story goes that after her husband's death, she was facing and struggling with many economic issues, but was helped last year by the Ministry of Agriculture's Horticultural Value Development Sector Project (HVDSP) a sun-dried fruit and vegetable stand. By drying fresh fruits and vegetables and selling them in local markets in Bamyan, she was able to boost her family's economy and establish a good business.
The solar dryer is a device that is used to dry fresh vegetables and fruits and provides the required energy from the sun, and in the fiscal year 1399, it was distributed to more than a thousand women by the projects of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Sakinah Askari, who is one of the beneficiaries of the mentioned devices said, "When my husband was alive, I did not think about working and producing agricultural dry matter at all, but after my husband perished, I had to work for a living, but due to lack of good work in Bamyan, I could not meet all my needs and could not anything to my family; Especially in the first six months, I faced many problems until I contacted the (HVCDSP) through Bamyan Directorate of Agriculture and asked for a sun-dried fruit and vegetable, I was given a desiccator, which dries 50 to 70 kilograms of fresh crops at a time in three to five days." Sakinah added, "Since the day the sun dryer was given to me, our lives have been booming economically, with the purchase of rum, apples, apricots and a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, and then using a sun dryer to dry these products, I do it and sell it in local markets of Bamyan at a reasonable price, which gives us a considerable income."
In general, sun dryers, on the one hand, assist needy or poor women to improve their family economy and, on the other hand, prevent the loss of crops as much as possible.
Horticultural Value Chain Development Sector Project (HVCDSP) has distributed about 21 solar dryers to needy women in Bamyan province, providing them with jobs and preventing the depletion of new crops.
The mentioned projects, which, among other activities, provides these services to impoverished women, is funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB).