A manufacturing engineering graduate from the University of Cambridge, Sarah Ong decided to apply her education in one of the poorest countries of Central Asia. She spent the spring in the mountainous terrain of Tajikistan to work on an income generation project for locals from yak down (fine hair).

Sarah raised the money for this project through joint funding by an EWB-UK bursary and from the Royal Academy of Engineering. The project, 'Yak Yak', as it is called, aims to utilize yak down to generate income, which is currently thrown away by most of the locals. Ong now plans to go back for another two years.

"I just completed my undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Cambridge but did not want to work at a regular factory in the UK," says Sarah. "Working in central Asia gives me the chance to use my skills where they will make a big difference as it has little industry of its own," she adds.

Sarah is working on 'Yak Yak' along with a partner organization, Operation Mercy Tajikistan, which identified the potential for generating employment from yak down. It will count as her final year research project.

Tajikistan is a newly formed republic and forty three per cent of the land is mountainous known as the 'Pamir' (roof of the world) region. Operation Mercy Tajikistan carried out a needs assessment of this area a year ago and found that employment was the biggest concern for the region.

"While there is currently little industry in the region, one resource that is commonly available is yak down," explains Sarah. "Although Yak herding is a centuries old tradition in the Pamirs and almost every part of the animal is put to good use, it was found that many people ended up throwing the down away," she adds.

However, in Sarah's words, "It is one thing to identify a possibility and another to make it happen!"

Together with the Operation Mercy team in the Pamirs, Sarah considered how best to use the yak down. The fineness of the yak fibre lends itself to knitwear. "We also decided upon producing finished goods as this would maximize the employment potential for the locals," she says.

The exact product to be produced from the down is yet to be finalized. Currently it is in the pre-production stage, where Sarah has so far been involved in observing existing harvesting methods, trialling hand 'tufting' of the down, collecting samples of current spinning, getting down samples spun, and then knitting up this yarn into hats and scarves to see what kind of fabric is produced.

This has helped her identify quality problems and also plan the way ahead. "The biggest problem is to separate yak down from the hair," says Sarah. "Along with improving quality, we also need to establish reliable production if we want to export garments overseas," she adds.

Sarah now plans to go back for two years to follow up on the four phases identified by her during her initial work. Elaborating on the different stages, she says, "The first stage is exploratory—this is looking at the idea to see if it will work, the second is proving quality, the third producing required volumes reliably and the fourth diversification."

In the next two years, her aim will be to "really make it work", that is, to test the reliability of production and to identify partner organizations for export of finished goods.

'Yak Yak' is particularly targeted at the mainstream, high street customer.

Sarah has raised the initial money for the coming two years from friends and family. Once the quality and reliability of the project is established, she hopes 'Yak Yak' will be in a position to partner with overseas retailers.

Sarah is also planning to learn East Persian once she is back in the country to overcome the language barrier.

Apart from the satisfaction of taking on the challenge of generating employment for people who live in such poverty, what has been particularly fulfilling for her is the experience of living with Pamiri people.

"I have enjoyed it a lot," she says. "It is a beautiful country and it was wonderful to be able to apply university knowledge in somewhere so completely different," she adds.

Sarah feels that she will take back a lot from this rugged terrain, which goes beyond 'Yak Yak'.

"My stay there has changed my perspective on life. From these people, I have learnt the difference between a luxury and necessity. Earlier I would think that taking a shower is a necessity, now I think it's a luxury. I also believe that the West can learn a lot from them because eventually we are all going to face a resource crunch. They know how to live with less resources, and not out of choice but because they are forced to," she sums up.

• External publication: University of Cambridge website
• More information about Operation Mercy Tajikistan
• More information about EWB-UK Bursaries
• About Tajikistan