Few months of food assistance mean a lifelong income

This past winter Jiidegul, a jobless mother of three, set out to the local store to buy her youngest son’s favourite local cheese: Kurut. She was struck by the product’s information tag: it was imported from Samarkans in neighbouring Uzbekistan.

“I looked at the tag and realized something was wrong,” said Jiidegul. “It must be possible to produce kurut in large commercial quantities here in Kyrgyzstan.”

Kurut, dried salty yogurt balls, is traditionally home-made in the Kyrgyz mountains. It is mainly a small business for rural communities and they do not produce enough for the market’s demand.

That is how Jiidegul dream was born: to produce traditional Kyrgyz dairy such as kurut for sale. But with her limited knowledge and scarce resources that were hardly enough to feed her extended family, it remained a dream.

Dreams can happen

But the dream became a reality when the World Food Programme (WFP) trained 50 women in Kashka-Suu village, including Jiidegul, on home-based dairy processing. With support from Japan, WFP provides skills training to women in the poorest regions across the country to help them create a source of income and afford healthy and necessary foods for their families.

Kashka-Suu is located on the foothills of Padysh-Ata pasture that is full of cattle during the summer months making it the perfect place to host the milk processing training.

“I always thought that making cheese was difficult …it turns out that mozzarella is not as difficult…it only takes 3 hours.”

During the training, Jiidegul learnt how to make cheese with supplies already available in her village. “I always thought that making cheese was difficult and that it required certain skills as well as professional equipment,” she said. “It turns out that mozzarella is not as difficult to make if you know the technique — it only takes 3 hours.”

Teaching food making; lifelong food assistance

The 4-day training covered basic milk processing skills, including cheese making, developing yogurt starters and sour cream processing. After successfully completing the training, every participant received food assistance for her family including 150 kg of flour and 15 litres of oil — enough to cover the family for six months until they start making money using the skills they learnt.

A self-help group was established among the women who participated in the training. They produced the first samples of their dairy products including cheese, kurut and creams. Their products were tested and by residents who liked them.

Such locally-made dairy products are indispensable in the local diet and are considered a healthier option compared to industrial products that use preservatives and artificial flavour enhancers.

Now, the women are planning to open a dairy processing business. They have developed a business plan and have carefully discussed all the issues. The local government will support them by providing the women with a building to start their dairy processing workshop that will create job opportunities for villagers.

Thanks to contributions from the Government of Japan to promote women-led entrepreneurship and farming, WFP was able to support about 15,000 vulnerable women in rural areas of the Naryn, Talas, Jalal-Abad, Osh and Batken provinces to build income-related assets such as fruit and vegetable gardens and create small businesses while also improving rural infrastructure.

WFP supports community-based businesses through trainings on food safety, processing technology, and marketing. To date, WFP has helped set up over 20 food processing businesses across the country that include dairy; fruits and vegetables drying, wool processing and canned foods workshops.

Learn more about WFP’s work in Kyrgyzstan.