Aid in Action
HIV-Positive Mothers to Gain Silk Production Skills
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Photo: Family Health International
Eri silk worms feeding on Castor plant.
HIV-positive mothers from Ethiopian community-based Mother’s Support Groups (MSG) and USAID launched a unique program in October linking HIV care and prevention with improved livelihoods through commercial silk production. Called the Silk Production and Innovation Network (SPIN), this program will enhance the economic security of AIDS-affected households by providing women with, ultimately, a valuable product—raw silk—to sell. The geographic focus of the initiative is the heavily trafficked Addis Ababa-Djibouti transport corridor which, with its mobile poor population, is an HIV transmission route. The launch was held in Ethiopia with MSG members, government, USAID and Family Health International (FHI).
SPIN will train an initial 250 women in Mojo and Welenchiti towns in all aspects of the silk production process, including how to plant, maintain and harvest the Castor plant, upon which the Eri silk worm feeds.
SPIN’s approach is to ‘start with the market.’ Though there is a history of silk consumption in Ethiopia, primary silk production has never taken off on a significant scale. SPIN’s approach is to prepare women to respond to recent increased market demand for high quality raw silk cocoons.
SPIN is an initiative of LifeWorks Partnership Trust, established by USAID/East Africa’s Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies (ROADS) Project in 2007, and implemented by FHI and supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Ethiopia.