Summary
GoodWeave's Weaving Opportunities program is a vocational training initiative for carpet weaving that began in Nepal in 2013 to provide at-risk and impoverished women with marketable skills and to replenish the workforce with skilled adult weavers. The program is designed to address the labor demand from companies in a country where, despite high nationwide unemployment and poverty levels, the carpet industry is facing a worker shortage due in large part to a lack of trained adult workers. GoodWeave further recognizes the lack of secure incomes for adults and the exploitation of children are interrelated, while fair and decent work for adults enables families to send their children to school. Despite the myriad challenges now facing Nepal, this program was successful in achieving its
goal of providing 250 trainees with the means to rise out of poverty through market-driven skills and job placements. Demand for this initiative is high, and GoodWeave is eager to begin implementing the expanded program in the coming year.