Saera's story: feeding the family
| Saera Orunbayeva is one of around 200 women whose lives have been turned around by the training they received at the Osh rehabilitation centre for vulnerable women, run by the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent.
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| When 18-year-old Saera's father died five years ago, the future looked bleak for her family. Her mother suffered from depression, developed serious health problems soon after her husband’s death and had to quit her job at a textile factory. | | |  | |
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All four children pitched in to help make ends meet. Saera’s older brother quit school and became a handyman and the younger children made manty (dumplings) to sell in the local market. They struggled to make enough to pay for necessities, like clothing and heating in the cold Kyrgyz winters.
Learning to sew
Then Saera’s friends told her about sewing courses run by the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent, supported by the British Red Cross and European Union. She proved to be a fantastic student and now works in a dressmaking shop, creating and mending clothes.
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| She is able to support all her family’s needs and her new skills have had added benefits.
“Now all of us have clothes to go out in,” Saera’s mother says proudly. “We have clothes to wear when visiting someone and meeting friends.” | | |  | |
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