Impoverished Yi women increase their incomes at poverty alleviation-oriented embroidery workshops

Several Yi women create traditional garments at the poverty alleviation-oriented Yi embroidery workshop in the Yisa community, a resettlement site in Butuo county, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)

The government of Sichuan province’s Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture has established poverty alleviation-oriented Yi embroidery workshops in 26 large relocation sites – each home to more than 800 residents – in seven of its impoverished counties. Training and jobs are available to ethnic Yi women at the sites, which makes it possible for them to increase their incomes and promotes the sustainable development of the Yi embroidery industry.

A 500-sq m Yi embroidery facility recently opened in the Yisa community, a resettlement site in Butuo county that is home to 14,000 people, including 3,000 left-behind women. The workshop currently employs 1,100 Yi women and gives them the ability to exchange embroidery techniques and exhibit traditional Yi clothing at a centralized location.