Several months ago, I watched the documentary The Beauty Academy of Kabul. This doc details how some American and Afghan-American cosmetologists traveled to post-Taliban Afghanistan to open a beauty school. The response by the local women was overwhelming: They virtually knocked down the academy’s door for the opportunity to learn hair-cutting and styling, makeup application and other beauty skills.
Under the Taliban rule, extravagances such as makeup and perms were forbidden. (Apparently this wasn’t strictly enforced. One of the women tells of cowering when a Taliban officer came knocking at her door at night; turns out he was just bringing his wife by to get a perm.) With the fall of the regime, women who have practiced beauty arts in secret finally have the chance to make an economic difference in their families. One hairstylist says that she can make more money preparing a bride for a wedding than her husband makes in a whole month.
Sadly, the academy didn’t last. Like many worthwhile endeavors, they had passion but not enough money.
The memory of this movie has been germinating in my mind, and last week, I found an outlet, a way I could help women struggling to support their families with their skills: microloans. Very small loans have the potential to empower women and reduce poverty by giving not a handout but credit to entrepreneurs to start or expand businesses (see: “Poverty Reduction: A little credit goes a long way“).
The Web site kiva.org offers investors the chance to pick individual entrepreneurs to lend to in increments as small as $25. So, I looked through the profiles, and I chose Adoudé Akue-Goeh, a seamstress in Togo, a small country in West Africa. I and 34 other investors provided her the working capital to buy materials and further her business…and beginning April 15, 2009, she will begin to pay us back.
To learn more about kiva.org and microfinance, click the graphic below.
Beauty Crucible 