Emma Conyngham keeps her Kabul business going despite daunting obstacles

Emma Conyngham has come close to shutting down her sustainable-giftware business in Kabul, but a plea from one of the women it employs helped persuade her to keep going. During a visit to the Afghan capital in July, a worker knelt and tugged at the hem of Conyngham’s skirt, asking her not to close the factory because families depended on the jobs, according to the account. Conyngham and her Afghan-born business partner, Rahila Sayed, run Waste Free Celebrations. The company makes reusable Christmas crackers, fabric gift bags and wrapping cloths for Hanukkah and Diwali, offering alternatives to disposable wrapping and plastic gifts. Its products have received awards, including the top honour in the 2026 Sustainability & Social Impact Awards and recognition for its reusable Christmas crackers. The business began with a practical idea rather than a grand sustainability plan. A keen gift giver, Conyngham wanted an easier way to wrap presents for her husband, Alistair, their five children and their extended family. In 2020, she started sewing fabric bags at home in Wānaka and selling them at local markets. After she launched a website, orders rose far beyond what she expected. Conyngham recalled being unable to turn on her phone for two weeks because sale notifications kept arriving. Her sister-in-law, who worked at Auckland’s Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre, suggested that Afghan women in need of work could help with production. As demand increased, Conyngham moved her family to Auckland. But manufacturing and exporting from New Zealand proved too expensive, and the business’s production eventually shifted to Afghanistan. Sayed, a widow who came to Auckland with her children as a refugee in 2014, suggested the move, according to the article. The obstacles of operating in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have left the partners weighing whether the costs of continuing are worth it. Yet Conyngham says the women whose livelihoods depend on the factory remain central to her decision to persevere.