Minister Education & WD inaugurates 14th Sartyoon Sang Crafts exhibition KARACHI: Interm Provincial Minister for Education & Literacy abd Women Development Sindh, Mrs Rana Hussain inaugurated the three day 14th‘ SRSO Sartyoon Sang Crafts’ exhibition at Ocean Mall Clifton, here today.
On the occasion, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) SRSO, Muhammad Dital Kalhoro, Provincial Secretary, Education Sheerin Mustafa Narejo, Members BoD, Azar Ayaz, Rafiq Buriro, Naseer Memon, Rural Women Artisans and others were present.
The three-day exhibition is being organized by the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) with collaboration of the Sindh government and its partners displaying work of around thousands of women artisans of Sindh with an aim to provide market linkages to rural women and artisans.
She appreciated the endeavours of Sindh Rural Support Organizations for poor and destitute communities and voiced her expectation of the continuation of such support for rural communities of Sindh.
She met and purchased wares from artisan women who came from different far flung areas of Sindh and appreciated their work and craftsmanship.
The first day of the exhibition received an overwhelming response from local and international visitors.
Appreciating the exhibition, the Minister Education Mrs Rana Hussain said arranging such an activity to promote artisans, handicrafts and Sindh’s culture was a great effort being made by the SRSO.
It's mentioned over here that the Sartyoon Sang Craft Exhibition has been organized by SRSO for the last thirteen years with the motive to support ethical fashion and to promote crafts of some of the most marginalized women in the province.
The event also attracted large numbers of women residents of Clifton and nearby areas. The exhibition showcases a wide array of Sindh’s handicrafts made by rural women including home textiles, basketry, jewellery, dresses, dupattas and shawls, embellished with traditional embroidery and cutwork.
These events are aimed at boosting local and traditional crafts and processes, and have created a foundation and process for connecting Business Development Groups (BDGs) and artisans to the high end market of Karachi.
This is purely an effort to develop market opportunities for rural women especially those from extremely remote villages of northern Sindh with the profit being earned from these exhibitions transferred to the artisans. Chief Executive Officer (CEO), SRSO, Muhammad Dital Kalhoro said that the event’s objective was to facilitate better incomes for women artisans of rural Sindh.
He said that his organization has trained over 30,000 rural women in different trends adding that SRSO's Crafts Enterprise Development sector has organized 10,120 rural women artisans in 308 various crafts business development groups for improved crafts marketing and is trying to create it's identity in the urban markets through the brand of "Sartyoon Sang Crafts Enterprise", and to become a social enterprise which exclusively works towards the care objective of connecting Artisans especially women to market, he said.
“In this connection, the rural women from the most under developed regions including Jacobabad, Kandhkot-Kashmore, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Khairpur, Sukkur and other districts that to help these women gain maximum monetary benefit from their skills, they have incorporated urban trends into their work.”
SRSO has organized the 14th Sartyoon Sang exhibition with the support of Sindh Government to showcase the work of rural artisans with 308 Business Development Groups representing 6005 artisans of 12 districts and over 5729 products displaying and marketing their hand-made crafts including Plazo, Shalwar, Garara, Trouser, Shawl, Duppta, Stoles, Wasitcoat, date Leaf, Wheat Straw, Khussa, Moora, Straw and Rillis, bed sheets and cushions.
Irfan Ali 
