Decorative stones

written by: Yama Rahi

Those, who have some experience in a field, could gain more benefit from their occupation. Nahid Haidari, a resident of Kabul city, is the owner of a factory of decorative stones. Writer/producer AEPO has talked to her about her work.

She says: while I was studying in India in 2008, I established this factory because it was the field of my study. At the beginning, I faced many problems. As I am a woman, most of the people didn’t like me to work. My first customer prohibited me from work in this factory but, while he saw the result of my work, he liked it and encouraged me to improve the business.

The factory has different parts and about 12 workers are employed in the factory. One group of the workers cut the precious stones into pieces and separate them for beads and jewels. The next group polishes them. The third group sorts the stone according to the brightness and color of the stones and they fix the value of each stone. All of our customers are Afghans.

Motorbike Carrier and Bumper:

Hamidullah Khairkhwa is one of the partners of motorbike carrier and bumper production company in Kabul city. He says to the writer/producer AEPO:

As demand for carrier and bumper was high in the country and there was no company inside Afghanistan to produce these items, we established this factory in order to produce carriers and bumpers for motorbike in 1993.

Before starting our work, I traveled to a neighboring country and bought the machinery. We prepare raw material from Kabul and Herat provinces. About 7 people are working in our factory.

At the beginning, we faced problems with electricity and customers but nowadays, we produce about 40-50 carrier or bumpers daily and our customers are increasing day by day.