Micro-credit in Morocco is a winner.

Tiny buttons from micro-credit!

Recently we reported on the micro-credit schemes in Morocco and discovered that 600,000 out of a total of one million clients in the micro-finance sector in 2007 were women. Today we decided to examine one small and highly successful scheme.

L'Association D'Artisanat Des Femmes De Khenifra has been assisted in setting up an enterprise in which the women make traditional articles including very small buttons - the type used on djellabas. These tiny creations are works of art in themselves, but the women have gone further and created a range of interesting products from them. Some incorporate other materials, some are threaded together as wrist bands or necklaces.

Linda Zahava

Trying to trace the roots of the project took us to some interesting places and people. Firstly there is Linda Zahava, a Peace Corps worker and the dynamo behind the drive to market the women's work. Linda, an artist in her own right, was in Fez to show off the collective's merchandise and find an outlet. Linda is an enthusiastic advocate of the micro-credit scheme and quick to explain how it is changing the lives of the women who have become involved.

She also guides us in the direction of another remarkable woman, Rebecca Kousky, who set up an organisation called "Builda nest". Nest is a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the lives of women in developing countries. The mission of Nest is to support women artists and artisans in the developing world by helping them create sustainable entrepreneurial businesses. To do this, Nest provides micro-credit loans to be used for the purchase of the supplies and materials necessary to begin and/or maintain art or craft-based businesses.

Djellaba buttons

It was Nest that talked with the women of Khenifra and came up with a plan for women there to practice traditional crafts such as embroidery, carpet-making and sewing djellabas. At the moment they are concentrating on making the fabulous textile buttons by hand (pictured above).

Even though Khenifra is a provincial capital, it is not a tourist destination, so the women must sell their products to middlemen who buy them for very little and sell them in the tourist towns for a great profit. Other than craft work, there aren’t any jobs there, so most women work alone in their homes, sewing or weaving.

One problem for these women has been that they don’t often leave their homes, except to go to the souk so they tend to be isolated and lack companionship from other women. The goal of Nest's program was to help the women get together and form an “association” – the Khenifra Women’s Handicraft Association. This is now a formal organization registered with the Ministry of Artisanat. As an association the women not only support each other, but they sell their products at expositions and craft fairs around the country. Nest provided the funds necessary to form this association and to renovate a space for the women.

Latifa shows off the women's fine work.

"The Khenifra women have a lot to be proud of."

Overall statistics in the micro-credit sector show that more than 20 billion dirhams ($2.26 billion) have been distributed thus far, 13 billion dirhams, ($1.48 billion) of which is invested by women in productive projects, especially in poor rural area. The micro-credit sector has been developing at fast pace since the 1990`s and it is now an essential instrument in the struggle against exclusion and poverty in Morocco

High illiteracy rates, particularly between women, about 60%, are a serious constraint for their participation and ownership of businesses because they have fewer and lower options to get a job, that’s why women are more interested in micro-loans than men.

The Khenifra women's work can be seen and purchased exclusively in Fez from Cafe Clock.

For more information please contact Linda Zahava at: lindaza@hotmail.com

If you would like donate to the great work the Peace Corps, Nest and the women are doing please visit The Nest in Morocco.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news