Success story of Bubusara Mamytova, artisan of the Yak House

Bubusara was born in Murghab in 1963. She is a widow and has five children, four sons and one daughter, aged between ten and twenty five. Under the Soviet Union, Bubusara was a handicrafts teacher and earned 94 roubles a month. Her husband was a pilot, working for Murghab airport. The family lived comfortably. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bubusara’s salary was reduced to 14 somonis a month whilst her husband lost his job with the closure of Murghab airport. Her husband was not able to engage into any income generating activities as he fell sick. He was then allocated a 62 somonis invalidity pension a month. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bubusara’s salary and her husband’s pension hardly allowed their family to cover basic needs.

Bubusara has been a member of the Yak House since its creation, in 2000. She then stopped working as a teacher as the income she was earning from the sales of her handicrafts was much higher than her previous salary. She produces both woollen carpets and embroideries, which are sold in Central Asia. Her income from the handicrafts products sales averages over 700 somonis a year. The family has no other sources of income. Bubusara’s income has allowed her to send her daughter to Murghab pedagogical school. Her daughter has since become a school teacher in Murghab.

The Yak House did not only allow Bubusara to earn a decent living, but also gave her the opportunity to participate in handicrafts exhibitions and workshops in Dushanbe and Bishkek, to meet clients and to learn new weaving techniques. She in turn trained her fellow Yak House members to use these techniques.