By Bouchra Zine, Program Coordinator
April 12, 2022, 15 women from Talsnant village benefited from a participatory approach workshop conducted by the HAF Family Literacy team in Beni Mellal-Khenifra. The workshop took place in Ait Bouguemez village, Tabant commune, Azilal province.
Nine attendees were members of the Tighermin cooperative, but there were some women from the village whose curiosity to understand more about the cooperative’s work led them to attend the workshop as well.
Cooperative Tighermin’s main activities are making food products from grains, saffron cultivation, and collecting the aromatic herbs in the region. They were very well known for their hard work and the high quality of their products, but due to COVID-19, they had to pause production. Now, they are ready to restart but are still considering how to take this first step.
Cooperative Tighermin’s members had already benefited from an IMAGINE workshop conducted by the HAF team in 2019, but even so, they are interested to experience it again for the sake of new cooperative members. Other women from the village are also being encouraged to attend the four-day empowerment workshop.
The community mapping and needs assessment exercises revealed nine priorities that the women identified for the community: literacy classes, trainings on a cooperative’s purpose and legal practices, marketing, and sewing, and the development of a hospital, roundabout, ambulance serivce, bank, and hammam.
During the meeting, the women of Ait Bouguemez were not shy to discuss their challenges and fears. The shared freely their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. One attendee cried while she talked about her childhood, and she expressed her regret about not being educated. She mentioned that she is just one of the many women who was waiting for a program such as this one to help her to study and improve her life.
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.
