A poverty-relief project is harnessing the embroidery tradition of Yi women by providing embroidery training courses in Ebian Yi Autonomous County, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

These classes aim at enhancing women's embroidery skills and simultaneously developing the embroidery industry. More than 6,000 women have participated in the program and reaped its benefits.

Past participants have opened almost 30 shops in the town and earned anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 yuan every year through their embroidery.

Luo Azhi was one of the women who opened an embroidery store in the county. "I earn about 60 yuan for embroidering a knapsack and 30 yuan to make a wallet. Every month I can make over 5,000 yuan. Not long ago, after two years of embroidering, I was able to buy a two-story building," said Luo.

The people of Ebian Yi Autonomous County add some fashionable elements into the patterns and designs of their embroidery, creating more than 30 kinds of products such as knapsacks, suitcases and home decorations. They hope that Yi embroidery will eventually spread beyond the mountains and enter major metropolises.