Casablanca, May 28, 2021 - Sheltered by Aït Manos, a zellige craftsman, the Aït Manos Foundation is based on two reasons: the economic empowerment of women artisans and the promotion of ancestral crafts.
Despite being the mainstay of the rural economy, women have limited access to financial resources.
Aït Manos, through its directors Ghalia Sebti and Tawfik Bennani, has been supporting the villagers and in particular the women of Imzour for 20 years through the Alanwar association (Al Haouz region - Morocco).
In February 2020, the opening of a women's hostel at the initiative of the villagers via several charitable associations (bringing together 32 women in 3 villages), raised a number of questions:
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How to create income-generating activities?
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How to enable the learning of a trade and the transmission of ancestral know-how?
The Aït Manos Foundation was born with two missions:
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Empowering women :
Firstly, to support women to create and market beautiful knotted wool carpets and boucharouits.
The current solidarity sale has already raised nearly Dhs 50,000 for the Alanwar association.
"In just a few months, the village women made sublime carpets despite the difficulties linked to Covid. Indeed, as the souks could not be held normally, they were unable to obtain wool. So they took the initiative of spinning their wool again, as the old ones used to do, with a much more beautiful quality! What a proof of agility! What a lesson! With this first step, they have gained confidence in themselves because their know-how benefits the whole village. In the long term, they should be helped to create their cooperative in order to become truly autonomous," explains Ghalia Sebti, co-founder of Aït Manos.
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Promoting traditional crafts:
