COURTESY OF PELOO BADSHAH AND ANJALI DHAR A Kashmir craftsman applies his creative touch. The arts and crafts of the troubled south-Asian region will be featured this weekend at a Los Altos sale.

Kashmiri carpets, papier- mâché, jewelry and pashmina will be for sale Saturday and Sunday at the Z Castle Gallery, 127 First St., Los Altos, to raise money for health care, housing and education in the Kashmir Valley of India.

Sponsored by the Sozni Valley Foundation, the 5-8 p.m. event aims to keep the traditional arts of Kashmir viable as well as to provide help to the thousands of Kashmiris forced into refugee camps by political unrest.

Anjali Dhar of Los Altos and Peloo D. Badshah of Mountain View, both native Kashmiris, arranged for the event. They visited the region in March, purchasing items from the local artisans that will be used in the upcoming sale.

“We were really shocked about how Kashmir had fallen behind instead of moving forward,” Dhar said, describing hundreds of thousands living in tent camps. They want to help those in the camps as well as the displaced Kashmiris.

Dhar and Badshah contacted the Sozni Valley Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping the Kashmiris, to lend their support. Dhar and Badshah are donating shawls, “namdas,” a kind of woolen rug, “pherans,” long, embroidered gowns, and other items for the sale.

When political upheaval began in India nearly 20 years ago, repercussions spread throughout the Kashmir region. Militants forced some 400,000 Kashmiris from their homes.

Licensed nongovernmental organizations in Kashmir will use the money raised from sales to build housing, improve medical facilities and distribute grants for education.

For more information, contact Badshah at peloobadshah@gmail.com or call 305-1523.