(9 Jan 2003)
ALL TOKO MATERIAL
1. Kandahar city street
2. Machine in factory
3. Close tilt up of the raisin cleaning plant
4. Raisins on conveyor belt during cleaning process
5. Women workers in this raisin cleaning factory
6. Woman cleaning the raisins
7. Close up on face of woman worker
8. SOUNDBITE: (Pashtu) Shagofa, worker
"We were migrated people, now we came back and my mother and I both work here in this factory for the employment because we were in desperate condition."
9. Woman worker weighing a raisin package ready for export
10. Close up of box of raisins being closed
11. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Shaima Sherzad, supervisor
"After the starting of this factory, I and all these women workers are very happy. This is a happy moment for me to see these all poor women working here and getting money for their children, most of them are widows."
12. Wide shot of the store on which women are setting the raisin cottons
STORYLINE
In a bomb-damaged factory in Kandahar, women once barred from working by the Taliban are washing, sorting and packing raisins - the first time in their lives that most have had jobs.
The Haji Sher Mohamad Raisin Factory, located on the edge of the former stronghold of the Taliban militia, is reviving a traditional Afghan export, giving women and local farmers a chance to earn money to support their families.
The project is run by a US-Afghan agricultural aid agency, Central Asia Development Group, which took over the factory in July to process locally grown fruit.
The 65 women who work in the factory were all recruited locally by Shaima Sherzad, a female supervisor on the project, who visited them in their homes to persuade them to come out to work.
Some of the workers recently returned to Kandahar after years of living in Pakistan as refugees.
Many are war widows who rely on their income of around 100 Pakistani rupees (one US dollars and 72 cents) per day to support their families.
During the rule of the rigorously Islamic Taliban regime, which fell in late 2001 after US-led airstrikes, women were banned from working or attending school and were subject to dress code and travel restrictions.
In the 1970s, Afghanistan exported up to 70-thousand tons (63 and a half thousand metric tons) of raisins annually.
This declined during two decades of conflict and increased competition from other producers such as Turkey and Iran.
The Haji Sher Mohamad factory has already fulfilled an order for more than 100 tons (metric tons) of raisins for the Czech Republic and is now working on an order of dozens of tons (metric tons) for Britain.
The raisins are washed twice to make them acceptable for Western consumers.
The project, funded by the British government, is set to last a year, though the agency hopes to find more sources of cash.
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