Sanglakhi’s business: A rags to riches story

KABUL (Pajhwok): A young Afghan woman, who started a small business with a capital of 500 afghanis selling two kilograms of qurut (dried yoghurt), has impressively expanded her work. Adela Sanglakhi, a 25-year-old resident of Kabul, has employed about 100 women at home and abroad and intends to hire another 1,000 females.

In addition to owning this massive business, the young woman is currently studying online at an Indian university. She is pursuing a master in economics and business. Sanglakhi lives with her parents, two brothers and two sisters in Kabul. After attaining a bachelor’s degree, she joined the World Bank. She is interested in providing job opportunity for women.

“I have always dreamed of creating jobs and becoming an employer, in addition to being an employee. From a business point of view, apart from being a buyer, I’m also a seller. “For this reason, to allay the concerns of women affected by war and unemployment, I arranged a series of seminars in Kabul and several other provinces in 2017,” the entrepreneur recalls. She started her business with 500 afghanis in the hope of expanding it. “I went to Bamyan, where I bought two and a half kilograms of qurut and brought it to Kabul. I introduced it in Kabul supermarkets, whose owners evinced an interest in buying it.”

The businesswoman adds: “Later, I brought 49 kilograms of qurut and sold it at a very good price. Thus I continued my business,” Sanglakhi’s capital rose slightly and so did her business savvy. She went on to create an organisation called Afghan Girls to support women. At the moment, it has 85 employees in Kabul, Paktia, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Daikundi, Ghazni, Balkh, Baghlan, Takhar and Bamyan. It also has 12 female workers in the US, Sweden, London, Italy, Spain, Moscow, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkey.

According to her, the women working abroad for her organisation are literate. They are working in sales, marketing and communication departments. But the women within Afghan carry out administrative work in offices in different parts of Afghanistan, Sanglakhi explains. The women working for her are engaged in needlework and selling their products to customers within Afghanistan and abroad.

The Afghan Girls annually exports three containers of women’s handicrafts to different countries besides arranging embroidery training programmes. The handicrafts include a wide dress variety, headscarves, hand bags, shoes and decoration items that are exported to the United States, Sweden, London, Italy, Spain, Russia, Uzbekistan and Turkey.

Her company — Afghan Girls — has hired hundreds of local women. Since the firm’s establishment, hundreds of women in the capital and some provinces of the country have received education and training in areas of needlework, cutting, bead embroidery and leather embroidery. For security reasons, the woman says, she could not put an exact figure on her capital, “Roughly speaking, I have invested $80,000 in my factories in Kabul and Paktia.”

She remarks: “My dream will come true when peace and stability return to my country. My ambition is to travel to all provinces, to the farthest parts of my country, to exploit the extraordinary talent of Afghan women.” Sanglakhi believes that with women’s self-sufficiency, domestic violence that most Afghan women are faced with could be controlled.