Bread for Women (BfW)

The project combines humanitarian intervention and targeted development actions. Initiated in Kabul, it was designed to be extended to other Afghan cities and provinces, with the aim of generating a large-scale positive economic impact.

Today, the Afghan population is plagued by increasingly acute poverty, due to the combined effect of the economic crisis, the drastic increase in the prices of raw materials and essential goods, and the collapse of female employment. As a result, 80 per cent of women - especially female heads of households - no longer have sufficient means to meet the basic needs of their households.

Bread for Women focuses on bread, 'naan' in the Dari language: the staple food of Afghans, the cheapest food and the only one many can afford.

NOVE rehabilitated a number of traditional women's bakeries in the Afghan capital that had fallen into disuse or were in a critical condition. The first step was to make the bakeries more efficient in terms of production, and more sustainable for both the environment and the health of the women working there. The selected bakers were then offered free technical and accounting training to enable them to gradually develop their own business activities.

In addition to paying the wages of the bakers and their assistants, the project provides the raw materials needed to make bread, which is then distributed free of charge every day to women heads of families in extreme poverty, meeting the need for this food for about a thousand people.

Bread for Women also has an important social component, as the free distribution of bread, approved at NOVE's request by the Taliban authorities, allows women to get out of domestic confinement and meet in bakeries.

In line with established practice, we have focused on a replicable project, which in the future will be able to generate income for an increasing number of women and families, in compliance with current regulations.

Afghanistan – Kabul fall 2023 - 31 may 2024 (conclusion of the first phase)

DONORS: Linda Norgrove Foundation, 8×1000 all’Unione Buddista Italiana, Uplift Afghanistan Fund.