Helping Cultural Crafts Flourish

Ayena Waseem is one such artisan who makes lacquer wood art. She learned it from her mother and father, who inherited the rare skill from generations of family members before them. In fact, the decorative handicraft, involving intricate designs carefully carved into wooden objects, is a family heritage dating back 500 years, and Ayena wants to preserve it for the next generation. “This is our family’s work, and no one knows this skill outside our family,” she said. “Currently, it is just me and my father and mother who are working with this. I really want to teach this art to other people in order to pass it on and nurture it, because the thing is, I am the only remaining heir of this art. If I abandon it, it will disappear from the world. I want to preserve this tradition.” <a href="https://medium.com/usaid-2030/helping-cultural-crafts-flourish-f29a78cd3a44">Read More</a>