Afghan Reality TV Contestant Wins With Recycling
FrontLines - February 2009
By Becca Acuna and Kate Olsen
Reality TV has come to Afghanistan in a big way. Modeled after Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, the show Dream and Achieve gives budding entrepreneurs in the country the opportunity
to compete for $20,000 to help them build and grow their businesses. This woman, a contestant on the show, shows off some of her tailoring.
|
The next big Afghan star doesn’t sing, doesn’t dance, and doesn’t act—he recycles.
Faizul Haq Moshquani, a father of nine from Kandahar, isn’t the typical Afghan celebrity. But as the winning finalist of Dream and Achieve, a reality TV show modeled after Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, Moshquani has stolen the limelight and captured the imagination of thousands of would-be entrepreneurs across the country.
For the past three months, Afghans have tuned into Dream and Achieve, or Fikr Wa Talesh, and followed Moshquani and six other finalists as they competed to prove they had the most compelling, innovative, socially responsible, and viable business concept.
On the night of Aug. 14, 2008, Moshquani and his plastic-recycling business plan went on to claim the top spot against competitor Mariam Jami Al Ahmadi’s jam-making business. As the winner, Moshquani will receive $20,000 to help make his business dreams a reality.
“With this prize, we will relocate our factory and build a micro-hydro power plant so that we have electricity at no cost,” said Moshquani. “This will help us to grow the business.”
Half of Afghanistan’s population lives below the poverty line on $1 a day.
The Concord Women in Kunduz project teaches women, mostly widows, to become self-sufficient through factory work such as sewing.
|
Dream and Achieve, which is the result of a Global Development Alliance between USAID, TOLO TV, the American University in Afghanistan, and the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan, sought to inspire budding entrepreneurs and promote products and ideas
that meet the needs of those at the lowest levels of the economic ladder.
“There are lots of ordinary Afghans engaged in small business, and this TV series has done a great job to show how those entrepreneurs are making a difference in their communities,” said Noor Delawari, a guest judge on the show and an advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on private sector affairs.
“This [show] demonstrates the impact of individuals with the commitment and drive to achieve their dreams.”
Over the course of 13 episodes, the six finalists worked with the USAID to improve their business plans and craft their presentations for the judges, who would determine the winner. Even the 12 contestants who did not make the top six received loan assistance, training in export strategies, Web site development, and other services.
“We were excited about the show because it exposes over a million Afghans to new concepts and builds capacity for business development,” says David Elliot, an advisor for USAID.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
To have FrontLines delivered
to you via postal mail, please subscribe.
Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
To view PDF files, download
the Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
Back to Top ^
|
