Key person: Azam and Barbara Gill
The church building which is attached to the school building (PAK06) has been extended to cater for the sewing course and for the growth in numbers coming to the church. This has made the sewing course much easier as they no longer have to shift everything each day.
A course finished earlier in the year and in May another course began. It will finish in February.
I visited in October and met those doing the course. In general, they love the training and it is very helpful at home. They are making some very nice garments and a number of them were wearing clothes they had made. They were very proud to show them off. And we had some snacks which made for a pleasant visit.
We didn’t get to talk to them in any depth as it would be inappropriate to ask too many questions to Muslim women. They expressed general satisfaction that they were learning well and able to make things. Their families were also grateful for the help in training. Previous courses had received sewing machines on graduation but it was creating difficulties and jealously so this has now stopped. The fact that most of them are Muslims does change the dynamics in terms of asking much about them, their families or thoughts.
We did get to hear about the circumstances of some of the women:
The sewing teacher would like to have a permanent sewing room where she could teach women sewing. She is married but her husband sent her back to her parents. She is 27 years old and has three small girls who are students in Christian Cambridge School (PAK06). She would like a place to work to support herself and her family and raise up her daughters. Her father is retired and her parents have given her one room to live in with them.
Surriah has no parents, both died in a road accident. She is living with her brother's family and they work her like a slave. They don't allow her to go out for a job - many families feel ashamed if their daughter, wives, sisters go out for work. When she found out that her neighbour's wife was learning sewing she forced her brother and his wife to allow her to learn sewing so after her marriage she could support herself and her family.
Another student is Imrana from Kashmir. She recently finished high school and came from Kashmir to live with her relatives in Wazir town. She has no father and her relatives cannot afford to support her further studies so she asked them to allow her to learn sewing to enable her to be self-supporting in the future.
Nasreen Fiaz is a Christian woman, a housewife with four children. She works in houses cleaning and washing. She has two girls studying at Christian Cambridge School. Many people will not give her work in their homes because of her Christian faith. She decided to enrol in the sewing class to have respectable work in society.
This is a great activity for breaking down barriers with the local Muslim community. From time to time radicals create difficulties for them but having this, the school and the computer training (PAK06a) is a great bridge. One of the primary purposes for running these courses is to foster friendship and understanding between people of different faith backgrounds.
There are 10 students in the current course and three of them are Christian. Talat Naz is the teacher and the students spoke very highly of her. All of the school teachers have either done the course or are in this year’s course.
I would like to continue this for another year and review again. This area is growing in population with many people building houses and shifting into the area. This means there are more people wanting to train and it’s a great bridge building ministry.
The opposition by some radicals in the community. That their influence would be mitigated by reasonable people.
1) That the programme is still able to operate despite the opposition from some people.
2) That they are making good contacts with people in the community and because of this there is increasing respect and awareness.
This is still a viable programme and they see it as crucial to maintaining connection to the community.