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Project Overview
The Kandahar women's bakery project will allow approximately 5,600 female-managed and poor households to have secured access to baked breads for an extended period of 6 months.

The breads will help the households to reduce their expenditure on food and divert financial resources to improve living standards.

This program will also give economic empowerment to women.

Project Background
According to the United Nations, Afghanistan's estimated one million war-widows ranks it among the countries with the highest female-headed household population.

The rapid changing social and economic conditions in Afghanistan has forced these women into multiple roles as food producers, care providers, income generators and decision makers under conditions of limited financial resources without the help of a spouse or other support.

Conflict emergencies, violence and destruction have created even more intolerable conditions for women who traditionally have the primary responsibility of sustaining life within families.

Project Objectives
• To set up independent women bakeries, allowing widowed families to gain access to a sustainable form of income
• To provide a source of employment for widows and enable them to acquire specific skills
• To provide subsidized bread predominantly to widow-managed families and poor households for a duration of six months

Project Activities
• Registration of beneficiaries and appointment of widowed women in bakeries
• Identification of houses for the bakeries and improvement in basic bakery infrastructure and provision of different equipment (one time activity)
• Baking and selling of breads (continuous activity)
• Monitoring and Evaluation (continuous activity)

Beneficiaries
The number of beneficiaries which will benefit from this program totals 40,000 members of the Paghman community and outlying areas, with 26,400 of these beneficiaries coming from vulnerable groups.