Rural Women Ensuring Well-being of Family and Community During the Crisis - Madina`s Story

Madina Baghakashvili is a woman who lives in Karajala village, Telavi municipality in Georgia with her mother and father-in-laws and two children. The tragic death of her husband has significantly changed Madina’s life as her family struggled financially. Therefore, she started thinking on additional work to help her family. Madina always had desire to run her own sewing business, as she was very good at tailoring. However, in order to start this business she needed some financial resources, which she didn’t have.

With hope of improving her financial situation for better future, Madina participated in the Women's Economic Empowerment project, supported by UN Women. In the framework of the project, Madina purchased sewing machines, fabrics and other materials. That's how she has begun her first sewing business. “I have been involved in this business for 3-4 months and have already received the orders. In fact, this activity is also a major source of income for my family”.  Mostly Madina sews the linen but she can also remake different clothes. Most of all, she is happy to go out of the house and start her own business. Now he has become stronger and has been actively involved in social life.

Due to the spread of COVID- 19 Madina's daily activities have significantly changed. Pandemic had an essential impact on Telavi as well as the whole world. So the demand on face masks has been increased and Madina started to sew multiple usable face masks. She had a large order of masks from the village pharmacy, where she has already delivered 500 pieces of face masks. Because Madina did not have enough resources, the pharmacy delivered to her the sewing material. However, Madina wanted to help the village with her activities and give the most necessary thing to locals. “I wanted to help my neighbors during this pandemic and give them face masks sewed by me for free”. With her own fabrics Madina sewed 40 pieces of multiple usable masks and distributed them to 10 families in Karajala community for free by keeping hygiene standards and distance.

At this time, the resources that Madina have is enough to sew only 700 pieces of face masks, but she’s afraid that if the pandemic continues for a long time, her activities will be endangered: “The fabrics are nowhere to be found, so I can't sew anything after the supply is exhausted”.

Despite of this Madina doesn’t lose the hope. In future. When Madina overcomes the difficulties she has big plans as she wants to improve her knowledge and improve her work to support her family and community more. The project has brought significant positive changes to Madina's life and she wants to share it among the women living in her community.

The project “Women’s Economic Empowerment through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” is supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), implemented in Georgia by Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), Taso Foundation (TF), and CARE International in the Caucasus (CARE).