It was 9:00 am and already 90 degrees in the city of Fes! Jess, a British woman and founder of SAMA, and I were sitting and sweating in a hot cafe discussing our “Passion Projects” (as Jess likes to say) cooling down with freshly made smoothies. It had been 7 months since I moved back to Morocco to start my “Passion Project,” Amalna Maroc. Jess asked me about what were Amalna Maroc’s initial goals. I described they were to learn what is happening on-the-ground with weaving and sewing cooperatives. To learn what drives the success of a cooperative. What does that success look like? Is it the income or the life skills and confidence that they are gaining that drives them to success? Maybe it's both?
My assistant Nora and I have visited seven cooperatives, and sat down and held small group and one-on-one discussions with five (two sewing, three weaving) in the past 7 months. It’s been fascinating, educational, and straight up fun learning about the cooperatives throughout the Mid Atlas region. Like many research projects you're left finding some answers, but left with more questions than when started. My take away so far is two major things: Number one, there has to be some income incentive for the women. I’m still trying to figure out that income amount. Number two is the chemistry within the cooperative. I would argue that the chemistry within the group is more important than the income. Why? Because the chemistry/sisterhood is what keeps the core group of women to push forward and work hard in the hopes of turning a profit. At the beginning of every cooperative there is always a large group of participants, but pretty quickly the number begins to drop. In my Peace Corps village Ait Yaha Oualla, the textile and sewing cooperative president Fatima put it this way, “they think they're going to find money in the river”, but it's never that easy so they leave. The women who stay are the ones who have the passion and drive to keep pushing forward until they find “money in the river”. They are also the ones who have also found a sisterhood and support system within the cooperative.
Where does this leave Amalna Maroc moving forward? As for now Amalna Maroc is helping support the new weaving cooperative in Ait Yahya Oualla get off the ground. We are helping them connect to existing cooperatives and NGOs as well as laying down the groundwork to sell their rugs overseas through the largely successful textile artisan cooperative The Anou, (their rugs will soon be for sale on the Anou website as well as Amalna Maroc’s, or through me, Audrey, directly).
Amalna Maroc is also starting to consider partnering with the local Association, Arkhbil Takafa, in the hopes of starting a Responsible Tourism program in the nearby town of Azrou and the Mid Atlas Mountains as a way to bring cultural exchange and income directly to rural Morocco. Nora, Abdelhaq (the president of Arkhbil Takafa Association) and I are busy brainstorming strategies and potential attractions for this very exciting vision. We are hoping to start a test run next fall.
Over the summer I’ll be heading back to the San Francisco Bay Area visiting friends and family as well as backyard gatherings sharing updates and answering questions about Amalna Maroc. Nora will be taking an Intensive English Class in Fes at the American Language Center, paid for by Amalna Maroc. As for the rest of the cooperatives they’ll be busy working away on their various crafts, i.e. their own ”passions projects
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About Amalna Maroc: Amalna means “Our Hope” in Arabic. Our hope is to advance women’s development in Morocco. A primary focus of Amalna Maroc is to work with women’s cooperatives in Morocco, especially in rural areas, by providing education, resources and support that increase empowerment and economic opportunity for Moroccan women and girls.
Contact Amalna Maroc at amalnamaroc@gmail.com
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