By Sanae Benaadim

The EU Family Literacy team members met with 24 women of the Ahbab village in Ait Mhamed commune in Azilal province: 8 women from Abrid Nlkhair Cooperative and 16 others. The beneficiaries are real artists who have focused on artisanal work since childhood. Every Ahbab’s mother teaches her daughter the way to do carpets and sewing for themselves and their adult households. The women are able to make carpets, bake Moroccan cookies and sweets, cater meals and social events (from INDH’s funds), and color carpets using natural products, such as pomegranate peels or henna. The big challenge that they are facing is the lack of marketing and people from the outside to provide a fair price for their products in competition with other sellers in big Moroccan cities.

The community has ten priorities: local development, literacy classes, marketing, a sewing workshop, a general medicine clinic, a pastry workshop, traffic lights, infrastructure, a mosque for women, and public services (garden, swimming pool, and a library).

The women were encouraged to be in one cooperative in order to benefit from the workshops that the High Atlas Foundation can offer. The cooperative president is very nice and ready to arrange all workshops to engage the other women. She was clear with them all that being members of a cooperative is a responsibility and one hand. 

The women are looking forward to benefiting from the Imagine workshop after Ramadan.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the High Atlas Foundation and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.