Chechnya's first training and production center for disabled women opens in Achkhoy-Martan

Chechnya's first training and production facility for handicapped women has opened in Achkhoy-Martan. It is a joint project sponsored by the Handicap International organization and the Chechen Labor Ministry. The center features a garments-making line and three-month tailor courses. Handicap International has provided all the necessary equipment and paid tuition fees. The Labor Ministry, for its part, has provided the premises and organized the classes. Now the disabled women work in spacious premises bristling with state-of-the-art sewing gear.

With the Achkhoy-Martan facility now in place, disabled women from around the district center are welcome to join in and will later get professionally employed, which is very important since they all live in job-strapped rural areas. It all started with 8 people signing up, all carrying recommendations from the All-Russian Association of Physically Challenged People. The facility will eventually expand and the work will be done in two shifts there. When the students have picked up all necessary professional skills, Handicap International is going to provide them with sewing machines on a lease basis so that they will be able to work at home. Orders may eventually start coming from other parts of Chechnya and even from other regions.

The head of the Chechen Labor Ministry's department for rehabilitation and social integration of disabled people, Mr. Gagalov, hopes that if the project works out, similar centers may open elsewhere in the republic.