New times for mahalla Chinor

May 12, 2020

UNDP Uzbekistan image

With microfinance from GEF and national partners, Bazargul Hasanova is helping her rural community survive and thrive in this difficult year.

The Mahalla Chinor of Tashkent region’s Ahangaran district sits along the Ugam-Chatkal ridge of one of Uzbekistan’s few snow leopards landscapes. 

There are seven villages and 2,000 people who make a living on the rocky hillside slopes, with nearly everyone working in traditional cattle husbandry. Despite the population size there is a noticeable lack of manufacturing or services industries, such as dressmaking or hairstyling, particular serving the region’s women customers. Locals previously had to travel over 30km to the nearest city of Angren for these services. 

Mrs. Bazargul Hasanova was determined that she would be the one to change this situation. The joint project ‘Sustainable natural resource and forest management in key mountainous areas important for globally significant biodiversity’, implemented by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Ecology and Environmental Protection, is working to strengthen the economies of highland villages. Specifically a Microgrant Financing Program has been organized for residents over three years, improving living conditions in mountain settlements of the Kashkadarya and Tashkent regions.

At a workshop in Mahalla Chinor, one of many arranged by project staff and their Khokimiyat (local government) partners, prospective businesspeople like Mrs Hasanova learn about the microfinance available to anyone wishing to launch a business. After attending the training, she developed a proposal and applied for the microgrant financing needed to establish a personal services center in her community. 

Her application was shortlisted in December 2019, and by January 2020 she had received the equipment and materials needed to make her dreams come true. She soon opened a personal services center with a sewing workshop and hairdressing salon for women and men, all costing more than 100 million soum. 

“Before we launched these businesses, my daughter-in-law, daughters and I had to waste a whole day to travel to Angren city for the very basic services, like getting a haircut or having a dress sewn or repaired,” Mrs. Hasanova told us.

“I am very happy that I attended the UNDP workshop, and received the funding which improved the life of my family and my mahalla in general, because now we not only have the potential to serve all our residents, but also provide ten full-time jobs.”

In February Mrs Hasanova’s family launched a sewing workshop hiring six women from her village, which produced bed clothes for a local hospital, and provided tailoring services for nearby residents. An agricultural feed store was also set up, providing another avenue for employment.

Of course, soon after these service businesses were launched, they had to be temporarily closed due to social-distancing rules applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mrs Hasanova’s businesses quickly redirected their efforts and kept their staff employed, by producing 10,000 gauze facial masks. 4,000 of these masks were donated to Chinor Mahalla residents, while the remainder were provided to Angren city in order to better satisfy its citizen’s need for medical protection. 

After the quarantine ends Mrs Hasanova will relaunch her men’s and women’s hair dressing salons, her animal feedbusiness, and her grocery store. This relaunched business satisfies the needs of her neighbors, helping bring them out of the pandemic and into a brighter tomorrow.