Stone Ornaments

     Written by: Yama Rahi

In more than three decades, a large number of Afghans have migrated to different countries, and some of themlearned a skill and when they came back to their country, they started their own business.

AEPO's writer/producer has talked to Ali Ataei who makes stone ornaments.

Ali Ataei says: “I have been making stone ornaments for ten years. I make vases, tables, chairs, lions, horses and other stone ornaments.

I have learned this skill in Iran for five years. I worked for 6 months without any wages and when I learned, then they were paying me a fixed salary.

About 80% of our work is done by hand the remained is done by the machine.

I prepare raw materials from the market. When we want to make an ornament, at the beginning we draw its skitch and then I engrave it. Painting is also required in making ornaments.

Most of my customers are families, hotels, companies, government and non-government organizations.

In the past, I was suffering from economic problems, but now my life is better, I have bought my own house and I have paid my wedding expenses too."

Advertising Company:

Hamid Safdari, a resident of Kabul city says:

 “We use taxi to advertise our customers' announcements in different parts of Kabul city on LCD screens, which are installed on taxi cars. On the advertising screen, we've posted our contact numbers, and at the same time, we have a marketer and he advertises through social media. We started our work about two years ago and received working license after paying two hundred thousand Afghanis to the government, and from the last four months, we have officially begun our work. We sign a contract with our customers. We have two types contracts: one-year contract and six months contract. If a company wants to sign a one-year contract, we would charge them the fees for six months and if they sign a 6 months contract, they would pay us the fees for two months. The discount is for the attract of our customers.

Our service is currently restricted only to Kabul city, and in the future, we would expand it to other provinces (Balkh, Herat, and Nangarhar).

 More than twenty companies are our clients, and people have welcomed our work and we opted for the future.”