Weddings in any culture are a big deal.

In Afghanistan, they are a chance for an entire village to gather for a celebration, with everyone looking their best, out of respect for the couple.

Weddings are a very busy time for Rasa (not her real name), as she runs a beauty parlor out of her home in her town in southern Afghanistan. When weddings are announced local women begin to make appointments for manicures, pedicures, make-up and threading (for the removal of unwanted facial hair).

Rasa earns enough money through her beauty parlor to help her family with the increasing cost of food, but her future did not always look so bright.
Two years ago, Rasa’s days were spent looking after her family and watching Hindi sitcoms on television. Rasa had never attended school and had never learned to read. She believed that her future was hopeless.

Rasa’s sister, Habiba, had heard about a Samaritan's Purse-sponsored Women’s Center where women were learning basic skills that they could use to start their own businesses.

At Habiba’s encouragement, Rasa went to the Center to investigate the programs. She found a course on tailoring, where women spend 12 months learning to make clothes and weave cloth. She found a computer class and also literacy classes where women are learning basic arithmetic skills and how to read. And she found her calling in the cosmetology program, where women like her were learning the skills necessary to start their own beauty salons.

The beauty salon appealed to Rasa so much that she enrolled in the class. Over the next six months Rasa came to the classes daily. She practiced her newly learned skills on her fellow students and, when her skills increased, on her family. At home she began setting up her own beauty salon, even custom building a cabinet to hold her tools and supplies.
Rasa’s beauty parlor is now well-known throughout the community and she has many customers who return again and again.

“I’m so thankful for everything the Women’s Center has done for me,” said Rasa at her graduation. “They have given me hope for my future.”

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