Empowering Iran’s desert villagers
Before coming into contact with the project, Fatemeh, Abolghasem – like many of their neighbours – could hardly see beyond making ends meet.
Working together as a family to make a decent living. ©FAO/Amir Khaleghiyan
It is not long since Abolghasem, a 36-year old resident of Se-Qale Town in the eastern province of South Khorasan, used to mine black stones for the cobbled streets that adorn cities. He still works with stones – but of the multi-coloured kind that adorn people.
“I’d be paid less than IRR 500 000 (less than USD 5) a day to work in a rubble trench mine, out there in the desert [in a precarious job scheme]. Now, after all the training and support, I could easily make more than IRR 1 700 000 (USD 17) a day. And that’s working from my own home.”
Abolghasem was initially encouraged by his wife, Fatemeh, to take the course on lapidary (or gemstone) work, held by FAO’s Rehabilitation of Forest Landscapes and Degraded Land Project (RFLDL). “I was the first to enrol, around three years ago,” Fatemeh says. “Lapidary seemed an appealing career, with promising prospects, and I told my husband so.”
Between the course and the loan from the Village Fund Committee, also supported by the project, the spouses acquired all the skills and purchased all the equipment needed to start their gemstone business.