The Sewing Shop – (Extended)

- (2020 Grant recipients of Pulitzer Center)

Gandom Charity Center, a tailoring workshop, employs women who are physically ill, migrant workers, or the sole earners of their families. Founded six years ago, the workshop now employs 16 women. It was closed due to the coronavirus outbreak but reopened almost immediately because hospitals desperately needed medical gowns and masks.

Producing 32,000 medical gowns in two weeks for a health center in Tehran is just one of the center’s many recent contracts. The workshop is normally open for eight hours a day. But in these times due to an ever-increasing need for its products as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the workshop is running two full-time work shifts, from 7:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. The women employed in this workshop are paid according to their workload. For example, a worker earns two dollars for making ten gowns, which requires approximately 3 hours of work. On average, each person working in this workshop makes 40 gowns a day, and earns a daily wage of eight dollars.