On the 5th of May, HAF delivered sewing and embroidery equipment and material to the women’s coop in Tassa Ouirgane. The women were so please to receive this delivery. They immediately divided the groups into a girls group and a women’s group to prepare to get the equipment ready for production.

After the delivery, the women discussed the importance of being committed to the training and being responsible for the materials.  The women expressed a great enthusiasm to start the embroidery and literacy classes. They agreed that literacy classes must be one of the the foundations of their cooperative, given that illiteracy is very high among the community women, and breaking this cycle allows them to be more productive actors in the economy. Most importantly, training courses given by Meriem in new skills such as embroidery and sewing will ease women’s work in the home and will open up income-earning opportunities.

When women are economically and socially empowered, they become agents of change.

After the materials were installed with the help of Abdelhamid and the presence of the trainees, Meriem reviewed the agenda of the week with the women’s and girls group. The topics covered included:

•Introductions among the group members
•An introduction to the training
•First basic skills of embroidery
•Introduction to the literacy class
•Commitment and responsibility
•Hours of work