A Big Shout Out to the Adwal Cooperative Representing Ahermoumou

Adwal Coop @ Fes Expo

Last July a couple of amazing ladies from the Adwal Cooperative traveled from Ahermoumou, Morocco, (a.k.a Ribat l-Kheir) to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to participate in the 2012 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (SFIFAM).  Because I was Spain at the time, I was unable to attend the market, to greet both Fatima and Hind, or to buy any of their products, but I sent a lot of baraka (blessings/luck) their way.  Given SFIFAM's success in raising awareness about their mission, I am confident the cooperative did well in terms of sales and I am certain that both ladies learned a great deal from the business training workshops that the market provides.

Amina Yabis @ Fes Expo

Three years ago I remember helping Mrs. Amina Yabis, the Cherry Buttons Cooperative's president, apply for one of the coveted spots for the 2010 market.  I was a bit nervous translating and writing it out because I knew that a lot was at stake.  A trip to the market would mean that the cooperative would be able to sell their product at a venue that would value their hard work and masterful artistry.  Higher profits would translate to much-needed capital, which is tough to come by in Morocco, and that capital would most likely turn into further investments into the cooperative.  In the case of the Cherry Buttons Coop, that was exactly the case.  Thanks to SFIFAM's ability to bring buyers in direct contact with the coop, the profits from the sale of their great products led to the purchase of more equipment and raw materials and to the construction of their own workshop.

As you can imagine, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the coop was admitted, and I rejoiced with them when they were finally able to leave the cramped confines of their old leased-out workshop for their new and more spacious home.  SFIFAM's impact can be truly life-changing for the artisans and the community that supports them.  You can read more stories about the SFIFAM impact on their website.    

Getting back to Fatima, Hind, and the Adwal Cooperative, I met both ladies back when I started my Peace Corps tour in 2008 and visited the cooperative on occasion.  Ahermoumou, as the locals call it, was about an hour ride on a small transit van going straight east from Sefrou.  The town itself is pretty ordinary with your typical ville-nouvelle box-like apartment buildings with cafes, bakeries, and hanuts, but the scenery surrounding the small town is absolutely breathtaking.  The town sits on the edge of a plateau where to the north you can see all sorts of farms and sheep grazing on a flat plain extending as far as the eye could see and to the south you drop into a huge valley  lined with rows upon rows of olive trees and farms extending to the edge of a towering Middle Atlas mountain ridge.

Ahermoumou Zlul Valley before the winter rains

Ahermoumou Zlul Valley after the rains

Every time I visited I'd walk over to visit the coop whose building was resting right on the edge of the plateau.  After visiting the coop, I'd spend several minutes staring out into that huge valley trying to capture everything.  I could talk about the valley forever, but this entry is about the Adwal Coop who I'm sure draws inspiration from the scenery that surrounds them, the history of the Amazigh tradition, and the people that make up the community.

Fatima, Hind, and the rest of the cooperative were extremely eager and hungry for opportunities.  Luckily, they got an exceptional volunteer named Lynn Dines, who did everything she could to get the word out about the fabulous handmade textile products they were making and to improve the quality of their products.  Even after Peace Corps service, Lynn continued to collaborate with the coop.

Fatima, Lynn, and me @ 2011 Smithsonian Folklike Festival

Last summer, Fatima took a trip to the U.S. to participate in the 2011 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.  Fatima was part of a group of different artisans from different countries where the Peace Corps has a variety of development projects.  I was fortunate to run into her and Lynn during their visit to DC, and I even got to eat, backstage, some of the homemade couscous Fatima had made as part of her cooking demonstration--that's right, in some circles I get VIP treatment.

So upon hearing that the Adwal Coop would be headed to SFIFAM, I was extremely happy to hear the news.  My hope is that with the gains and contacts they've made that they'll be able to continue to expand their business and in turn help more women acquire a trade that will hopefully help them generate more income for themselves and for the home.

Not only will the town benefit economically, but the sale of their products promotes the preservation of their rich cultural Amazigh heritage.  Recognition and exposure are what a lot of the artisans need.  I am happy that the Adwal Coop was able to get some of that through SFIFAM and through Lynn's efforts.  I applaud all of them for their great work.  Keep it up and I'll continue to send more baraka all yall's ways!!!

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Just recently I saw a post on SCORE OC about Fatima and Hind's visit to that great small business resource center.  Here's a link to that story if you'd like to learn more about the coop and their post-market travels: http://scoreoc.org/2012/08/03/weaving-success/

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----This is a side note deviating from the shout out, but I do have to mention another memory that I have of the town.  Ahermoumou has perhaps one of the biggest souqs (open air produce and flee market) in the region.  People come from the valley, down from the mountains, and the nearby plains to buy and sell all sorts of goods.  Everyone is yelling prices, sheep and goats are bleating, roosters are crowing, chabbi music is blaring, and produce trucks are honking at all times trying to clear a path from the mass of people congregated there.  It's hectic to say the least.

The souq itself is pretty impressive, but out of all the commotion, one character stood out.  This guy had a piece of plywood sitting on some cinder blocks with a huge pile of peanuts spread out over his makeshift table.  What was peculiar was that along with the makeshift table he also had tied a loudspeaker to the top of a wooden pole and had extended the microphone cable to a makeshift headset that he would then use to announce that he had the best peanuts around.

He would broadcast the prices constantly like an auctioneer, every time he made a sale even if it was just a couple of dirham he would announce it, he'd have conversations with his customers on the speaker as well, he would haggle passersby and make wise-cracks publicly, and this went on from early morning until noon nonstop.  It was comical to hear the darija word for peanuts repeatedly, kau-kau.  He'd be yelling out prices in ryals too: rb3in(40) ryal kau kau, miyat (100) ryal kau kau, kau kau ashreen (20), etc.  Basically, every phrase would either start or end with kau kau.  The dude was a character.  If I happen to visit Ahermoumou again, I will try to see if the peanut vendor is there just so I can be part of his routine once again.

You Can Dream. Stories of Moroccan Women Who Do.

A fellow RPCV produced an amazing video of six remarkable Moroccan women who have overcome all sorts of odds to succeed and to share their knowledge with other women. One of the women profiled is my counterpart, Amina Yabis, President of the the Cherry Buttons Cooperative. Her story and that of all the other women are truly inspiring. They exemplify grassroots development at its very core. Please share with friends and family and spread the word that women's empowerment, as Amartya Sen would likely say, is one of the many if not the most effective tool for alleviating poverty for women and their children, reducing infant mortality, reducing the number of births, improving the health of women and their children, and creating more accountable and representative governments around the world.


You Can Dream. Stories of Moroccan Women Who Do from cortney healy on Vimeo.

For more stories on Women in the Muslim World, please visit: http://womensvoicesnow.org/

Camp GLOW Morocco 2010 Debrief

Camp GLOW Morocco is one of the few projects in Peace Corps Morocco that is still ongoing.  I was fortunate to be involved in the project, and I learned a great deal from it.  Based on the feedback from the PCVs that were at the camp and hearing from Amina, there were certainly some highlights and areas that could be improved.  The camp organizers overcame a huge financial obstacle to put the camp together borrowing from friends and family until the funds from the embassy, our primary funder, finally arrived.  Also, with the main organizer away on travel up until a week prior to the event, a lot of key decisions were put off until she arrived, but fortunately Ms. Yabis's perseverance made the idea of the camp a reality for many young women.

I sat down with Amina to discuss fund-raising options for future camps.  She will likely pursue funding from the embassy once again, but I'm hoping that she will also pursue opportunities with the Global Fund for Women, African Women's Development Fund, MEPI Small Grant Assistance, and USAID's Projet SANAD.  She has personal experience with Projet SANAD and has been briefed on others.

Ms. Yabis and I filled out the Projet SANAD grant last year.  We did not win financial assistance, but she received an invitation to participate in their capacity building workshops.  Unfortunately, those workshops all took place via webcast making it nearly impossible for a lot of semi-urban or rural associations that have unreliable internet or not enough bandwidth or who are not the most tech literate to participate.  I'm sure the webcasts were great and I'm sure a lot of people benefited from them, but whoever thought of the idea did not have rural people and their technical challenges in mind.

We knew going in that it would be tough to win given that Amina's association organizes only one large-scale event per year compared to other associations who have year-round programs.  We still gave it a shot.  I thought that simply going through the process and drafting the Camp GLOW goals and successes in Standard Arabic was a huge step.  She said that this was the first grant she completed on her own and applied to directly.  All others have been filled out by PCVs and with assistance from artisana delegation folks.  I'm hoping that she will apply again this year and draft a more sound budget with a series of camps and other training sessions that will hopefully get some consideration.

The association needs to apply for other funding outside of embassy funds so that the facilitators and other association personnel can get paid for some of the work they do.  All of the last four camps have been volunteer-organized and executed.  While it's great that these host country nationals have given of their time free-of-charge, expecting people to volunteer year-in and year-out is simply not sustainable.  There needs to be a core group of individuals who can organize and plan.  In the past, volunteers have filled this role, but given Peace Corps's two-year rotations and constant change in leadership and priorities, it's not certain that the Peace Corps will be there in the future and it really shouldn't be expected to be there indefinitely.  Sources like Global Fund for Women and I believe African Women's Development Fund permit the recipient to allocate a portion of the grant towards labor unlike a lot of other sources that forbid it.  Amina has never budgeted for labor so it'll be something new for her, but I think it will be something she and the current facilitators will gladly welcome.  Fortunately, the Global Fund for Women provides their grant applications in Arabic and French.  A couple of weeks ago when we met, she said she would look over the forms.  I'm hoping she does and applies.  Even if she doesn't win, she and her association will learn a great deal from the process.

All in all, I'm happy that the camp took place despite the financial hurdles.  Amina heard my feedback as well as that of PCV Marian and Rachel who were present at the camp on enhancing the structure of the camp.  The young women learned a great deal and made lasting friendships.  I do hope that the next wave of volunteers will participate in future camps and that Amina and the Golden Buttons Association will continue to learn from each event.

Once again, thank you to all who donated and for telling everyone and anyone about this great event. 
  

Camp GLOW Morocco 2010 Update

Camp GLOW is ON in full force once again for the 4th time since its inception in 2006 adding as we say in Spanish "leña al fuego", wood to the fire, and that fire is the motivation and desire that many young women across Morocco have to gain some economic independence and have more control over their future.

I don't think I mentioned in my previous entries about Camp GLOW about my personal motivation to see the camp succeed.  Part of my impetus comes from personal experience growing up among some very strong and powerful women who happen to be in my immediate family and happened to be living in the developing world.  Shortly after I was born, my father at the young age of 23 with a recently acquired university degree in electrical engineering passed away unexpectedly leaving my mother with me and my three-year-old sister in a foreign country with a foreign language and culture.  My mother suddenly had to provide somehow.  The situation thrusted her out into what was uncharted territory for her.  With the help of church friends, she went on to get her GED and to get a vocational certification in secretarial administration.  With my mother's visa about to expire, we had no choice but to move back to Venezuela where the going got even tougher, but thankfully family was there to offer support. In the machismo-permeated work environment characteristic of many Latin American countries, my mother had to fight even more for work and for the respect of her male bosses.  Another powerful woman was my Aunt Sara who worked extremely hard to get her degree in elementary education, to secure a public school position, and to save money to purchase a home that we all shared.  Both my aunt and my mother owe their strength to my grandmother who taught herself how to read and took on whatever menial job was available to put food on the table for her daughters and for extended family.

In order to get the family through the rough patches, these women had to be entrepreneurial, bold, audacious, resourceful, and innovative.  Being witness to how much these women were able to accomplish in a machismo environment in a developing country, I know that if women can just get the information, the knowledge, the skills, and the support from mentors, they can create the life they wish to live for themselves and for their families.  Also, given life's unpredictability, I believe this knowledge, skills, resourcefulness, and entrepreneurial attitude is not something that these women should gain and develop as a hobby but as a vocation.

Camp GLOW 2010 took over 40 young women from rural villages and small cities from the Middle Atlas Mountains and tried to instill the entrepreneurial spirit and to provide the know-how.  The camp took place from July 25-31 at Mohammedia.  I went to visit on the third day of the camp to chat with Mrs. Amina Yabis, my counterpart and principal organizer, take some shots, and to check-in with the PCVs.  PCV Marian and Rachel were present at the camp serving as camp counselors.  Marian wrote a number of summaries on our Facebook Cause that I'd like to share with you:

Camp GLOW Morocco-Days 1 and 2

After a two-day training of facilitators for Camp GLOW, 45 young women arrived in Sefrou yesterday morning. They piled in the bus rented for the camp and we pulled out of the parking lot. Amina, the lead facilitator popped a CD of Berber music and the fun began. The girls sang along, clapped and soon were in the aisles belly-dancing and shaking it without reservations. Wow, what a great start, no need for an icebreaker! The exuberant singing and dancing held out the entire five-hours to Mohammedia. After arriving at our campsite, everyone had a good night sleep.

This morning began with group exercise on the beach, and after breakfast we began our first session. The campers were split up into four groups and assigned to a facilitator who lead a discussion on attitudes about personality, gender and cultural differences. When the time came for the young ladies to partake in the discussion, they seemed unrecognizable from the group on the bus the day before. It took awhile to get warmed up and encourage some of the more introverted females to participate in the activity. 

As the day went on, the campers began to acclimate to their new environment and roommates. Some of the young women from rural villages had spent their first night away from their family the night before and all were new to guided discussions in which they were invited to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions. After lunch everyone took advantage of the sunny weather and spent a few hours on the beach. The thrill of seeing the ocean (many for the first time ever!) and playing in the waves was a fantastic way to wear down the guardedness inhibiting some of the GLOW Campers; for the first time since the beginning of camp the separate villages began to intermingle. 

After an afternoon session, the evening willl be spent in the dining hall for a dance party that will hopefully rival yesterday's bus ride.

Camp GLOW: Day 3

Women's Empowerment: 5 Steps to Success

GLOW Camp Day 3 started off with a sleepy breakfast following a dancing soiree in the dining hall. The campers perked up when Amina, the lead facilitator lead an energetic discussion about her experience starting and building the Cherry Buttons Cooperative of Sefrou. Her success as an artisan entrepreneur has become known all over Morocco and her cooperative is very active in providing mentorship and training to young women from the region. Amina explained the process of developing an idea into a plan and the process of starting and completing a project, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities she encountered while developing the cooperative selling jellaba buttons.

As Amina concluded her talk, the next speaker arrived from Rabat. Ilham Zhiri, president of the Association of Entrepreneurship for Moroccan Women arrived and led a lively, informative and inspiring discussion. After describing her educational background, challenges and career path towards becoming the Association's president, she outlined the five components that she believed had been crucial components to her success. These steps to success Ilham described are:

1. Self-confidence

2. Self-reliance

3. Positive attitude

4. A solution-oriented mind

5. Self-improvement

As she identified each step she applied each of them to one of more of the challenges faced by women in Morocco. The young women identified some of their own personal challenges and were very curious about specific ways she was able to use these steps to persevere, little by little. Ilham also shared information about Association of Entrepreneurship for Moroccan Women's mentorship program for young women and shared the Association's local and regional contact information. 

One camper, Fatima lives in a very small Berber village called Immouzer Marmoucha with few, if any business opportunities for women. Like many rural women, she comes from a family of skilled weavers. Towards the conclusion of the presentation, Fatima slipped off to her room and returned with three beautifully hand-woven traditional Berber pillows. She presented them to Ilham and described her goal of selling them in the city nearest to her hometown. It was a truly inspirational moment for both the camp facilitators and the participants. 

The young women walked to lunch glowing with encouragement and inspiration. Three of the ladies from my own site asked me to help them with their projects once they had returned from camp- What a great day!!

For many of the camp participants, it was the first time they had met a highly successful Moroccan woman, and for others the first time they had been told that developing self-confidence is an important part of achieving one's goals. 

Girls Leading Our World! Thank you Ilham, Amina, the Association of Entrepreneurship for Moroccan Women and the Cherry Buttons Cooperative!

Camp GLOW: Day 4 

Well, here we are already halfway through Camp GLOW! What a wonderful three days it has been getting to know the forty-four young women who have been working hard this week. 

This morning Camp GLOW was all about business. As a follow-up to the session led by Amina yesterday about building and developing a business, the campers spent the morning brainstorming business ideas in small groups and writing a business plan. Towards the conclusion of the morning session, each group presented their business plan and answered questions from staff and participants about the specifics of their ideas. The presentations were quite impressive and thorough; even more impressive were the creative ideas of each group. The project ideas included: a milk cooperative, patisserie, beauty salon specializing in weddings, cultural guesthouse, and an olive cooperative. 

Following lunch and an hour of swimming, the participants re-grouped for a presentation by an advocate of the newly passed Mudawana or Family Law of Morocco. Passed in 2005 by King Mohammed VI, the law grants women more rights within marriage and takes steps towards abolishing the patriarchal family. Some of the important changes mandated by the law include:

- The legal obligation to obtain a divorce from a secular court (vs. a letter from a religious official) 

- The parent who keeps custody of the children also keeps the house. 

- The legal age of marriage is 18 instead of 15. 

- Sexual harassment is an offense punished by law. 

- Polygamy, while still allowed, became more difficult under the new Mudawana in 2003

The advocate fielded questions from the participants and provided information on the remaining challenges within Morocco's legal system that may inhibit the enforcement of the code. These challenges, she said, are especially present in rural regions. Despite Mudawana's limitations, the participants will be able to take their knowledge of the new Family Law back to their hometowns, perhaps further empowering the women with knowledge about their legal entitlements.

In all, the camp had five full days of activities.  A range of subjects were covered dealing with health and hygiene, women's rights, and environmental stewardship, but the main focus was on entrepreneurship.  With the help of the U.S. Embassy staff who provided the organizing NGO, the Golden Buttons Association, with a number of special speakers comprising of some remarkable women business owners and high-ranking public servants, the young girls heard personal accounts of the challenges those women overcame and their keys to success.  The brainstorming of business ideas was led by Mrs. Amina Yabis, my counterpart, who just three days prior to the camp beginning had arrived from the U.S. after attending for the second consecutive time the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market.  Although I was not at the event to see her speak, I am sure she spoke frankly as I've seen her do in many instances about the need for women to seek more than what has been planned for them, to continue to learn, to get the recognition for their work, and to give back to those in need.

Camp GLOW is due to continue on through the fall and spring.  Because of a large grant the association received from the U.S. Embassy to cover the main summer camp, all the individual donations sent to the High Atlas Foundation totaling close to $1,200 will be used to hold 2-3 follow-up events in the Middle Atlas region.  We are hoping that we can leverage those funds with funding from municipalities, Peace Corps funding opportunities, or from other NGOs to be able to invite a large number of women.  A number of young ladies dropped out at the last second or were not allowed to leave their villages for whatever reason so we hope that with the excess funds, we will be able to take Camp GLOW to them.

I want to thank everyone who read my blog and donated to Camp GLOW.  I only posted a few of the pictures.  My counterpart and the PCVs took a whole lot more and will likely post them soon.  I will update the web album posted on the Cherry Buttons Coop site as soon as they are made available.  More information regarding the follow-up events will be forthcoming.  Congrats to all! Way to go GLOW!

Lunch with the Ambassador

It's not everyday you get to chill out with the high-ups in our government and much less in an informal setting, but just recently I got the chance to do that.  I can't explain exactly how it all came about.  It could have been that through my email blasting, which I've been doing over the last month, that word got around about my counterpart's trip to the U.S. to participate in the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market and at the opening of an exhibition titled Empowering Women hosted by the Museum of International Folk Art.  Another possibility was a referral from a dear friend of the Cherry Buttons Cooperative, Dr. Susan Schaeffer Davis, who not too long ago brought a delegation of U.S. Americans to Morocco and took them on a tour of events, some of which were attended by embassy staff and perhaps even the ambassador's wife.  Dr. Davis was one of the victims of my email blast to which she responded and said that she had recommended that the embassy staff meet my counterpart, Amina Yabis, if they were ever in the Fez region.

I got a call from Peace Corps staff alerting me of the ambassador's visit a couple of days prior to the expected arrival date, and then shortly after that phone call, embassy staff contacted me.  I was given a date, but few specifics: only that the ambassador's wife wanted to meet Amina and that they were aware that a Peace Corps volunteer was in the neighborhood so they also asked that I be present.  I was told not to contact security personnel as they would be responsible for doing so.  I relayed the information to my counterpart, but I forgot to tell her not to call any security personnel.

The day before their arrival, embassy security called me to give me an approximate time of when they would be there and to settle on a meeting point.  At the time, Sefrou was in full Cherry Festival mode.  The streets were decorated, there was a lot of foot traffic, music playing on different stages throughout the city, fantasia was on exhibit in the evenings, and expo tents were set up all over town, but the visit was not to partake of the festivities.  We decided we would meet at the artisana tent expo where Amina would be present with her cooperative ladies.

The following day there was a bit of drama.  Amina had told the Pasha, the equivalent of the security chief of the region, about the ambassador's visit and that he and his family may possibly dine in her home.  Amina said the Pasha did not take too well to the late notice and rebuked Amina for it.  At the artisana expo, local security personnel from either the police or other services approached Amina for more details, but she had none to give.  She told them to speak to me and I told them exactly what I had told Amina.  They wanted an itinerary that I simply didn't have.  When they realized that we were in the dark as much as they were, they cooled off and later on apologized to Amina.

As soon as the drama subsided, the black Suburbans arrived.  Amina and I went over to meet Ambassador Kaplan and his wife as they exited their vehicle.  On another suburban, members of the ambassador's family got out and we greeted them all.  A couple of volunteers who were planning to meet with Amina for Camp GLOW business came over to the tent and also greeted the ambassador and his family.  The ambassador's wife went over to Amina's booth, greeted the coop ladies and apprentices, and her family got to buying the coop's famous button necklaces and bracelets.

In conversation with security personnel, we determined that Amina would indeed host the ambassador and his family at her home for lunch.  As soon as we decided, Amina took off to get things prepared.

In the meantime, the ambassador and his family took a lap around the artisana expo with only the entourage of the security personnel.  The ambassador's visit was quite a contrast to the visit from the Minister of Artisana who had come through Sefrou only a few months back.  The entourage that followed that man was a good 50 meters long of what we PCV's call The Suits.  When the minister came to the artisana, all the artisans, members of the chamber of artisana, apprentices, and even myself formed a line for the minister to shake our hands.  Security personnel were out in full force with multiple vans shadowing the glossy, black Mercedes Benz-- the typical transport for government officials.  It was just a lot of pomp and circumstance everywhere.

I was happy that the political entourage was not there.  After all, this was not an official visit.  He did not come to make a proclamation or to shake hands with the political hierarchy; the ambassador and his family were here as your everyday tourist.

Next on the agenda was a visit to the Jewish cemetery in Sefrou.  I was about to say goodbye and to tell them that I would meet them at Amina's, but they urged me to come along.  I was honored to be accompanying the ambassador and his family, but more importantly I was psyched about the ride in the Suburbans.  For all my criticism of entourages, I was now part of one and I got to say that it did feel pretty cool.  The cemetery attendant greeted everyone with a "shalom" and then he began to blurt out some rapid-fire Moroccan Arabic that I could not understand nor could begin to translate.  Apparently, he thought that I was the tour guide for the group--not the first time this has happened.   The security personnel went over to the gentleman and explained that I was not Moroccan, but American, and that I was still learning.

The ambassador pointed to a grave that he said spelled out his first name Samuel in Hebrew.  The attendant led the group around the cemetery and pointed to graves where the remains had been removed and transported to Israel.  The ambassador said something to the effect that he had read that Sefrou had more of these empty graves than any other Jewish cemetery in Morocco.  In my nearly two years in Sefrou, this was my first time there.  It was interesting to see Hebrew written everywhere and to think that only 50 or so years ago Sefrou had a thriving Jewish population that lived in relative harmony with the Amazight and Arab population.

After the tour of the cemetery, we headed to Amina's home.  Once again I got to ride in the Suburban (it was cool the second time around as well).  Amina greeted the ambassador at the door beaming as she said in her limited English, "Welcome, welcome, welcome, and thank you, thank you, thank you."  We all sat down in Amina's living room and began to chat it up.  RPCV Gregg Johnson was there.  Amina's younger sister and her family were also there.  The ambassador and his family sat in one room while the security personnel sat in another not because there was not enough room, but because it was World Cup season and the other room had the TV tuned to the Paraguay vs. Slovakia match.

The ambassador and his family sat huddled towards one side of the room with the typical octagonal Moroccan table in the middle.  First, Amina's husband walked around with a water kettle and had everyone wash their hands.  Then, Amina began to bring out the food.  She did not do anything outside of what she normally does when she has guests visiting.   She served up the usual garnishes: small saucers of chopped tomato and cucumber, some saffron seasoned rice, some spicy tomato sauce, and a variety of olives.  She brought out the silverware in a tray that we passed around until everyone had one.  She also passed around a basket of bread.  Then, came the family platter of two oven-baked chickens with crunchy fries on top and a thick lemon sauce and green olives at the base--a classic Moroccan dish and one of my all-time favorites.  Not having individual plates to eat from, the ambassador's daughter asked, "So how do we do this?"

I proceeded with my vast knowledge of Moroccan table etiquette to explain how the bread serves as the fork or in essence kind of like a glove for one to dip and grab whatever is in one's real estate or food that is directly in front of you.  Gregg provided some cultural commentary on the tradition by explaining how eating in close proximity to each other and from the same platter was part of the community lifestyle that is exhibited in Moroccan society and how it serves to reinforce family bonds.  However, even with my exemplary demonstration on how to eat Moroccan style or the commentary, everyone went for the forks and went straight for the chicken.  Even though I am a big Moroccan bread fan, I'd much rather eat the meat without bread so I joined them fork in hand in prying the meat from chicken.  After getting our fill of all the garnishes and the chicken, Amina followed it with a platter of watermelon and big, fat Sefrouian cherries.

It was cool to see the ambassador and his family in an informal setting: his family kidding with him calling him "His Excellency" and his youngest grand-child taking bites out of the cherries and spraying everyone around with cherry juice.  It was great to see the ambassador almost eating Moroccan style.  I gave him a break.  It took me a while to replace the fork with bread.

He was happy to see that his security staff also got fed.  He mentioned that in some cases his security staff are not invited to eat.  Amina said that there was no way she would let those men go hungry.  The ambassador was extremely grateful for the food and the company, gave me and Amina his business card, and then we all posed for photos.

We walked the ambassador and his family back to their Suburbans.  I stayed behind with Amina and waved to them as they departed.  Amina was still overjoyed.  She still could not believe that  the Ambassador of the U.S. to the Kingdom of Morocco had dined in her home.  I was happy for her, but I was even more happy for the ambassador and his family who I believe got a different taste of Morocco here in Sefrou.  It was an exciting moment for me.  It was a pleasure to tag along with the ambassador and his family for a bit, being part of the entourage and riding in the Suburbans was a highlight, chowing down some Moroccan grub in typical Moroccan fashion, and just relaxing and shooting the breeze with him and his family.  It was a fine and memorable day in the life of another Peace Corps volunteer.

The Cherry Buttons Coop of Sefrou, Morocco, Is One of Ten Coops To Be Showcased at The Museum of International Folk Art

The Museum of International Folk Art just posted a news release listing the ten cooperatives that will be part of the upcoming exhibition titled Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities. The Cherry Buttons Cooperative of Sefrou, Morocco, is honored to be part of a remarkable group of cooperatives that are making a difference in their respective communities. Amina Yabis, the cooperative's president, said that she is looking forward to sharing her story and learning from others.

Amina's desire to learn was one of the main reasons why I decided to work with her coop.  When other associations or cooperatives approached me for money or equipment, she asked me to help her improve the marketing of her coop.  She felt that new ideas and new connections would be worth more than any grant I could bring.  She is well aware of the Peace Corps goals, which are more about providing new ideas and technical training rather than hard dollars.

The first volunteer Amina worked with back in 2000 provided organizational development assistance that helped her association and cooperative take root.  Another volunteer came shortly thereafter and helped her streamline her production and diversify her product line.  Later, a group of volunteers from the region pitched an idea of a young girl's empowerment camp and Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) was born.

When I arrived nearly two years ago with my broken Arabic and unsure as to what I would do or who I would be working with, Amina welcomed me to her home, introduced me to her family, friends, coop members, and invited me to her home numerous times for some hearty home-cooked meals.   She made me feel at ease and her family made me feel as another member of the family.  Also, it did not matter that my attempts at Arabic sounded like gibberish.  If we needed to speak in a mishmash of French and Arabic, then that's what we would do.  Communication was the goal whether it was verbally or non-verbally.  That's the true essence of what we Peace Corps volunteers call a sympathetic interlocutor.

Over the last year, we set out to improve the marketing of her coop.  We set up a website/blog prior to her trip to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (SFIFAM) last year, http://cherrybuttonscoop.wordpress.com.  Some of my friends from the U.S. and Europe traveling through Morocco as well as other PCVs passing through Morocco´s shamal (north) came to take professional photographs of her products and her coop.  Fouzia Chkar, a superb translator by trade, worked with me to produce the French language version of the coop' website, http://boutonsdecerises.wordpress.com.  We engaged in a number of product development exchanges with U.S. textile vendors that have not panned out as of yet, but have taught us a great deal about what other markets are seeking and what we need to do before proceeding with any major exporting opportunity.  A product catalogue is in the works.  I will also begin training a few cooperative members on the basics of digital photography, Wordpress web development, customer service, and marketing.  Inchallah (God willing), before I take off late this year and hand over projects to the next volunteer, the cooperative will be able to launch their catalogue, maintain it and update it, post updates on the blog section of their site, and begin to generate domestic as well as international sales.

This invitation to the museum exhibition is a testament to the hard work of Amina Yabis and the ladies of the cooperative.  It all began with an idea to bring equity to the marketplace for the women of the Sefrou region.  The women were the primary producers of a fine handicraft, but middlemen rather than the women were the primary beneficiaries.  In just over ten years, it has opened many doors of opportunity for many women who have come to her cooperative to learn to weave on a variety of looms, to dye wool, and have benefited from the exchange of ideas in other Peace Corps and NGO-sponsored workshops.  With the skills and a renewed sense of confidence, Amina and several coop members have ventured out of the home and traveled hundreds of miles to major craft fairs in Marrakesh, Casablanca, and Fez.  Today, the coop is considered a model women's cooperative in Morocco and is showcased as such by the Regional Delegation of Artisana of Sefrou.

I want to thank the many volunteers, foundations, government and non-governmental organizations, individual donors, and the amazing staff of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market and the Museum of International Folk Art that have given so much of their time and resources to create these amazing opportunities.  A big thanks to Dr. Suzanne Seriff for her patience in working with Amina and me and for her dedication to the project.  Thanks to all.

Please take a moment to read through the museum's latest release for more information on the extraordinary stories that will be told at the museum's exhibition opening.

Museum of International Folk Art

The ten women's cooperatives in the exhibition

EMPOWERING WOMEN: ARTISAN COOPERATIVES THAT TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES

(Santa Fe, NM, June 11, 2010)-Ten women's artisan cooperatives will be represented in the Museum of International Folk Art's Gallery of Conscience inaugural exhibition, Empowering Women. These co-ops are from Swaziland, South Africa, Nepal, Lao PDR, India, Peru, Bolivia, Morocco, Kenya, and Rwanda. You may read more about the exhibition here.

Swaziland: Phez'kwemkhono Bomake-Ncheka Cooperative

Today more than 50 local women work in the cooperative making baskets to earn money for their families and to provide support for the community's many AIDS orphans. Their earnings have transformed the lives of hundreds of AIDS orphans funding education, clothing, a soup kitchen, medicine, home-base care for the bedridden, and hospital services.

South Africa: Mapula Embroidery Project

With embroidery members of this collective call attention to the joys and hardships of their homeland. Scenes range from the nostalgic depicting animals and village life to current issues such as crime, AIDS, unemployment, to alcohol addiction. Maria Rengane, founder of the Mapula (Mother of Rain) Embroidery Project said; "I would like to spend all of the years of my life helping communities do things like this project for themselves. This is how you build a strong successful nation."

Nepal: Janakpur Women's Development Center

The women of the Mhathili culture were renowned for painting designs on the mud walls of their village homes for weddings, festivals, and other special occasions. When Claire Burkett, a New England college graduate arrived in the Nepalese lowlands in 1989, she thought if the women painted their beautiful, spontaneous images onto handmade paper, they could be sold to an outside market, and increase their socio-economic status. Today, more than forty women travel daily to the Janakpur Center, a huge step for women who were not allowed to leave their homes.

Lao PDR: OckPopTok

Ten years ago this coop was founded by a London fashion photographer and the daughter of a master weaver from the Mekong region of Lao Peoples Democratic Republic. OckPopTok means "East Meets West." OckPopTok has grown from a one-room weaving studio for local weavers to an internationally recognized heritage destination, gallery, retreat center and women's weaving collaborative for more than 200 artisans in three provinces and seven villages. This cooperative is as likely to sell wall hangings inspired by Mark Rothko as the traditional skirts woven with Laotian motifs.

India: Self-Employed Women's Association Trade Facilitation Center

SEWA includes more than 3,500 artisan shareholders in 80 villages in India's western state of Gujarat. The women - all skilled home-based embroidery and textile artisans - are the producers, managers, and owners of their collective livelihood. The women run every phase of the business and their success has translated into building a legacy of respect where previously they were known either by their father's or husband's name and are now known by their given name - part of the tradition these women want to pass on for their daughters.

Peru: Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco

Hand-woven textiles in the Peruvian Andes are an important social and ethnic marker and a significant part of the cultural heritage of the region. Nilda Callanaupa, granddaughter of a master weaver who herself was weaving by age seven, founded this coop in 2005 to preserve traditions that were dying out. Today the CTTC is in nine regions of Peru, each supporting its own cooperative structure and a state-of-the-art museum of Andean textiles and a weaving training center, the CTTC in Cusco has become a destination for tourists and community members alike.

Bolivia: Cheque Oitedie Cooperative

The 45 women in this cooperative plant and harvest the bromeliad and produce and market hand-woven and dyed fiber bags to an international market. The group's sales amount to more than 60% of the total community income and now they manage a collective bank account for the first time.

Morocco: Women's Button Cooperative of Sefrou

Amina Yabis, a typical Moroccan Muslim housewife and mother of four boys ran unsuccessfully for public office in 1997. This left her with a clear realization: women needed first to have access to the cash economy to be successful in public life. Over the next few years Amina organized more than 400 women from her province into a craft association called Golden Buttons. Economic success led to the formation in 2000 of the Women's Button Cooperative of Sefrou, a for-profit cooperative that was the first of its kind organized by women. The cooperative has ventured into other crafts and training programs to expand opportunities for Moroccan women for successful engagement in public life.

Kenya: Umoja Uaso Women's Group

The beginning of the Umoja Uaso Women's Group in Kenya was not about art. It was about survival. Rebecca Lolosoli and 16 other home-less women founded the village of Umoja Uaso in 1990 as a refuge fro Samburu women who ere victims of rape, beatings, forced marriage, genital cutting, and other violent domestic crimes. Umoja, which means "unity" is now a safe have for women and girls fleeing abuse. The women of Umoja sell their tribe's elaborately beaded jewelry and crafts, both traditional and contemporary, to provide for themselves and their children. They have established a sickness and disability fund, a community center, and a school for their children.

Rwanda: Gahaya Links Cooperative

In 100 days of explosive ethnic violence in 1994, Rwandan Hutus murdered some one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, leving hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans. Ephigenia Mukantabana lost 65 family members but has forgiven her family's killer and now works side-by-side the imprisoned man's wife as fellow members of a basket-weaving cooperative. Beginning with 20 women the company has now grown to a network of more than 4,000 weavers across the country, organized into 52 cooperatives. Ephigenia credits teaching her art to both Hutus and Tutsis as the balm that restored her shattered life. She says; "Art heals the hopeless soul. Weaving is hope for tomorrow."

Media Contacts

Suzanne Seriff, Ph.D
Sr. Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology,
University of Texas at Austin
Guest Curator, "Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives that Transform Communities"
seriff@aol.com
512 459-3990

Steve Cantrell, PR Manager

505-476-1144

505-310-3539 - cell

steve.cantrell@state.nm.us

steve.cantrell@state.nm.us

###

The Museum of International Folk Art houses the world's largest collection of international folk art, with the ongoing exhibition Multiple Visions: A Common Bond in the Girard Wing. Changing and traveling exhibitions are offered in the Bartlett Wing and exhibitions highlighting textiles are featured the Neutrogena Wing.  Lloyd's Treasure Chestoffers visitors interactive displays about collections and how museums care for collections. 

Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities

More good news to pass along. On June 29, Amina Yabis heads off to America to take part in the opening of an exhibition on July 4 titled Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities at the Museum of International Folk Art, and then will participate in the 7th annual Santa Fe International Folk Art Market from July 9-11.

Over the last couple of months, Amina and I have been in touch with the museum curators sending photographs and quotes for the exhibit. We had a little difficulty getting the right shots at first. Fortunately a couple of friends who happen to be avid photographers came to visit me from Spain and as I do with all my guests, I put them to work. They took some marvelous pictures of the women of the cooperative. The museum was pleased with the collection and selected a few of the shots so big shot-outs to my friends Lisa Anaya and Oriol Llados for their contribution. 

Once again another big "THANK YOU" to RPCV Gregg Johnson for his help in putting the application packet together back in October of last year for admission to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. The Cherry Buttons Cooperative received their invitation in January and in February we sent all the forms to confirm her participation. This time around the coop will have a full table displaying Sefrou's famous hand-woven buttons, button necklaces, Moroccan slippers adorned with buttons, and their multi-color scarves and natural dye chales. If you're in the neighborhood, I invite you to drop by and also to drop some dollars at her stand. 

What Amina Yabis has done with the cooperative is truly remarkable. In just ten years, the cooperative has grown from 10 to over 40 members, provides steady employment for a number of women, welcomes new weaving apprentices every year, provides natural dye trainings throughout the country, and travels to expos all over Morocco, Europe, and the U.S. Also, this year the coop's sister NGO, the Golden Buttons Association, will be holding it's 4th Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) in July. Amina is grateful for the support of Peace Corps volunteers, PCV families and RPCV groups who have supported Camp GLOW, partner NGOs like the High Atlas Foundation, Maiwa Foundation, the Santa Fe Intl. Folk Art Market who through their skillful fundraising financed Amina's first trip last year, and is of course grateful to her family who has pitched in with the cooking and housework to enable her to carry out her work.

Please take a moment to read through the museum's official press release on the opening of the exhibit and if you can, pass it along to your friends.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2010

MEDIA CONTACT
Steve Cantrell
505-476-1144

A quiet revolution is taking place around the world led by women artisan cooperatives. Taking the initiative to collectively produce, manage, and market their crafts, they have enriched their lives and become powerful forces in their communities. On July 4, 2010 the Museum of International Folk Art inaugurates its’ “Gallery of Conscience,” a space dedicated to exploring contemporary issues affecting folk art production and consumption.

Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities kicks off the first annual International Folk Arts Week – a week of demonstrations, lectures, folk music, performances, and other programs held in conjunction with the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market running July 9 through July 11, 2010.

Focusing on ten cooperatives that illustrate how the power of such grassroots collaborations transform women’s lives, the exhibit brings together first person quotes, stellar photos, and stunning examples of the cooperatives’ handmade traditional arts to tell stories of how women folk artists are working cooperatively to:

• Preserve and reinvigorate their traditional arts

• Generate steady livelihoods for their families

• Give back to their communities

• Become leaders in public life

• Overcome domestic violence

• Develop literacy programs for themselves and their children

• Heal the traumas of war

• Sustain their natural environments

• Save for the Future

The featured cooperatives are drawn from three continents and ten countries including India, Nepal, Swaziland, South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Bolivia, Lao PDR, Peru and Morocco. Featured folk arts include embroidered story cloths, hand dyed sisal baskets, beaded neck collars, hand carded and dyed wool weavings, cultivated bromeliad bags, and folk paintings of village life.

“As the largest folk art museum in the world we have a responsibility to create a forum to discuss current issues that folk artists are facing around the world. This ‘Gallery of Conscience’ will be devoted to the examination of issues that threaten the survival of the traditional arts, bringing them to the attention of our visitors,” says Marsha Bol, Director of the Museum of International Folk Art. “We intend to address, over the course of the next few years, such issues as: the ecological implications of the acquisition of materials used in producing folk arts, the impact of political conflict and war on folk arts, and various economic and social issues that threaten to disrupt folk arts. We will also exhibit examples of successful solutions to such circumstances.”

There is a strong connection between this exhibition and the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market which has; “…always [been] a supporter of cooperatives, recognizing their power to bring both cultural and economic sustainability to communities,” said Folk Art Market Director Charlene Cerny, “Most of the cooperatives at the Market involve women.”

When anthropologist Dr. Suzanne Seriff was asked to guest curate an exhibition on women’s artisan cooperatives at the Museum of International Folk Art she had a unique perspective as head of the Folk Art Market’s Selection Committee. Seriff was; “…struck by the large numbers of women's cooperatives applying to the Market, and their incredible stories how working collaboratively changed their lives. In this exhibition I wanted to bring some of these larger stories to the public, to give the women a chance to speak for themselves—in their own words about their work and their lives and how women all over the world are improving their lives, families and communities with the power of cooperatives."

Nicholas Kristof recently wrote in the New York Times how these women’s artisan cooperatives are change agents in the developing world. One Moroccan woman teaches a village to read. An embroideress from Gujarat takes out a loan for the first time at the local bank. A Hutu woman from Rwanda works side by side with a Tutsi to make the peace baskets that are working to heal their war-torn country. In Swaziland, the village women use profits from the sale of their handwoven sisal baskets to feed and educate the hundreds of children in their village orphaned from AIDS. In Bolivia, displaced Ayorean women learn to cultivate the bromiliad plants that were once native to their jungle habitat and from which they weave their native dress and hand dyed bags. Women artisans from all over the world are using the power of artisan cooperatives to reach new markets and transform their lives.

Two representatives from each cooperative featured in the exhibit will participate in a full week of demonstrations, discussions, lectures, and artist-led exhibit tours beginning with a facilitated roundtable discussion with the curator during the opening on July 4, 2010 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The opening will be hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities runs July 4, 2010 through January 2, 2011.

Camp GLOW 2010 - Girls Leading Our World - Join Us in Saving the World!!!

Saving the world is actually easier than it seems.  For I don't know how long, the answer has been staring at me, at us, and itself, but because of tradition, culture, misguided and/or misinterpreted religious doctrine, and perhaps ego from some, the answer has been neglected and in some cases suppressed.  The answer is women.  Women have the power to transform communities, but they need a helping hand.

In my one year and a half of Peace Corps service, I have witnessed an amazing transformation in my community.  I speak of the work of my Moroccan counterpart and entrepreneur extraordinaire, Mrs. Amina Yabis who just ten years ago thought to herself that it wasn't right that the women of Sefrou, makers of some of the finest djellaba buttons in all of Morocco, gained so little from the sale of their handicraft.  In an effort to counter the middlemen, Amina and a group of women decided to take the leap of faith and form a cooperative with the goal of taking ownership of their handicraft.  With the help of Peace Corps volunteers, Amina and nine other women wrote the bylaws and secured a micro-credit loan, and just like that, the Cherry Buttons Cooperative was born.  As the coop gained notoriety for its distinctive selection of buttons, the coop began to grow.  Another volunteer arrived and helped the coop diversify its product line by providing weaving and other professional development training.  Then I arrived and began working with Amina and a former volunteer to help the coop secure a spot in the 2009 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She went, sold nearly everything in dollars, and came back with a good chunk of capital that was then applied towards the construction of a building for the cooperative.  In March of 2010, the cooperative moved all their looms to their new center and celebrated the completion of their new home.

The reason I share this story is to demonstrate that it only takes one person who is hungry and motivated to unite others, demand change, and effect change in their community.  Ten years ago, the cooperative was just an idea.  Today it has nearly 40 members, a handful of apprentices every year, provides steady employment for a number of women, produces quality products, travels all around Morocco showcasing its work, and is once again invited to participate in the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market for 2010.  

Amina believes there are many young women out there who just need the information, some start-up resources, and a support network to develop the next big enterprise.  One way by which to provide the training and empower young women is through her coop's sister association's annual Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). The camp is a week-long event that brings health professionals, lawyers, star athletes, Peace Corps volunteers, and business entrepreneurs under one roof to encourage young rural women to break the cycle of dependency and to take control of their future. By exposing the young women to successful role models and by engaging in dialogue with community leaders, the young women begin to formulate ideas of what they could become. The camp is a place to exchange ideas, to network, and to build a larger support network.

One former participant was Najoua Ammzon, a 20-year old high school graduate from the small village of Tafijirt, Morocco. Prior to Camp GLOW, Najoua was unemployed and lived with her parents in her village. But after being inspired by Amina, Najoua decided that she had a lot of potential and could never return to sitting at home in her village, nor would she be happy if she simply married and became a housewife. Najoua decided to move to Sefrou to live with relatives to continue her studies so that she could, in the future, start a small business project running a teleboutique or a cyber café. She began to take French and English classes as well as study computer science and handicrafts such as knitting and embroidery. She also now regularly visits and networks with Camp GLOW facilitators who work as artisans in Sefrou taking advantage of local workshops and trainings to improve her job skills.

Najoua is just one of many examples of participants who are on their way to breaking the cycle of dependency.  Her bold move and that of many others has the potential to save the world.  You may ask how that could be.  How could Najoua's plans, for instance, to continue her studies have such an impact? When asked this question, I point to the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen who in his book titled Development as Freedom said that increasing the literacy of women has the effect of reducing infant mortality, reducing the overall number of childbirths, increasing life expectancy, improving the quality of life, expanding the overall economy, and creating a more representative democracy.  In a country where nearly 60% of the female population is illiterate, the need is immeasurable.  Camp GLOW coordinators and camp counselors are full believers that young rural women given the information and support will seek out opportunities that will improve their livelihood, that of their family, and that of their entire community.

So how can you help?  I and a number of Peace Corps volunteers are fundraising on behalf of the association for this year's Camp GLOW.  The camp is set to take place July 25-31.  Approximately 50 campers coming from some of the most remote villages from the Middle Atlas Mountains will gather in Temara near Morocco's capital of Rabat.  Funding for the camp is coming from multiple sources.  AIDS awareness funds, donations from partner organizations, and in-kind gifts will reduce the costs of the camp, but individual donations from you are key in making this camp possible.

Fortunately, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), a 501(c)(3) organization founded by former Peace Corps volunteers that invests in the growth of small communities across Morocco, has offered to process and transfer all donations from U.S. donors to Morocco free-of-charge.

To donate online, simply click: http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/donate (Go to "make secure donation" in the middle).  Afterwards, VERY IMPORTANT, please send a quick email to haf@highatlasfoundation.org to let them know that your donation is for Camp GLOW.  HAF is a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit organization and will send receipts for tax purposes to all donors.

Given that HAF is donating their time in processing donations for us, I strongly urge you to use the online option.  I donated online and found the process to be super easy.  Any size donation is welcomed.  Just to give you an idea of how far your dollar can go in Morocco, an $85 donation covers nearly all expenses for one young woman for the entire week-long camp.

If you would like to contribute via snail mail, you can do so by making your check out to "High Atlas Foundation" and indicate in the check memo that it is for Camp GLOW (It is extremely important to make note of that on the check so as not to confuse your donation for Camp GLOW with a donation to the High Atlas Foundation)

Please mail your check to:

High Atlas Foundation
Park West Station
PO Box 21081
New York, NY 10025

Because this is a volunteer-run camp from both Peace Corps volunteers and the Golden Buttons Association, 100% of all donations go straight to program expenses.  There is no overhead whatsoever.

I want to thank you for taking the time to follow my blog and for supporting me throughout my Peace Corps experience.  I hope I can count on your support once again.  

I also want to thank everyone who joined the Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Morocco Cause on Facebook.  If you have yet to join, I invite you to do so: http://www.causes.com/causes/461569.  Thank you in advance for your donation.  The HAF is planning on sending us an update on June 1st of our total donations.  If you can, please donate by then.

Thank you very much for helping me, my fellow Peace Corps volunteers, and our Moroccan friends save the world.  

Interior and Exterior Affairs: Comparing Glass Ceilings, USA and Morocco

During my senior year in college, I had to take a number of gender courses not by choice but because they were the only ones I could fit into my full-time work schedule while staying on track for graduation.  In one class I was one of three guys in a class of 30 and in another much bigger class I would estimate that we were a just a little over 10%.  It was a real drag to go to some of the classes because often the subject matter focused on how men continued to oppress women in every facet of society.  One class went segment by segment showing statistics on the disparity in education, income, occupations, media, and sports just to name a few.  It was tough to show up day in and day out to hear how we men conspire on a regular basis to keep women down.  I promised my female friends that I did not meet in dark, shady rooms to discuss strategies on how to ensure women could continue to earn 20-30% less than what a man makes.  The classes began to sound like a broken record.  Then, towards the end of gender course, there was an interesting development that made everything click for me.

Image may be copyrighted

Back in 2003, Annika Sorenstan, the number one golfer on the LPGA tour, requested to play in a PGA tour event.  At first, I didn't think much of it.  I thought that it was a bold move to attempt to compete with the best male golfers.  I was surprised to read that some male golfers did not want Annika to participate.  I thought, "Why would they object, did they feel threatened, and what is it really that they're objecting to?"  Vijay Singh, the number two golfer in the PGA at the time, dropped out of the event and said she had "no business" playing with men and others said it was a publicity stunt.

Many female organizations supported Annika's move and began exposing a side of golf that I had not really been aware of.  Several organizations built campaigns pushing for changes to the many all-male membership policies of many golf country clubs.  The organizations claimed that the policies of these exclusive establishments were discriminatory. The campaigners pointed to the advertising that goes on during golf events to demonstrate how important it is to gain access to the country club.  The sponsors of the marquee events are usually some of the biggest and most prestigious corporations in the world: Rolex, Accenture, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE, Audi, Polo, and upscale spirits companies round the list.  To the women organizations, the country club is a place where the CEOs of some of these sponsors gather to iron out a merger, secure venture capital investments, or decide to launch their IPO while playing out a round of 18 holes.  Women CEOs or women who want to climb the corporate ladder, unable to join the boys, miss out on the wheeling and dealing that may take place.

I slowly began to understand why my gender class professors kept repeating the same tune. It was not to bash men, but to expose how the oppression is systematic.  It was to show how both men and women sometimes discriminate or perpetuate oppression upon one another sometimes deliberately and sometimes without even thinking.  We all do a number of things as second nature for a number of reasons: sometimes because mom said so, tradition, culture, or perhaps religion.  Before Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, or Ghandi, the thought that certain rights or privileges belonged only to a select few was widely accepted and adhered to by a vast majority in both the oppressors and oppressed camp.  Both camps content with the status quo or scared of change would have probably justified their stance by saying that things are simply the way they are and that things would likely remain the same so why fight it?  Why not just adapt to it?  These revolutionaries did not believe that premise and boldly began to expose the injustice and to preach the gospel of self-determination, and over time a number of people began to see their point of view and joined their cause.  It took guts to stand out there despite what seemed like an insurmountable resistance, but their audacity brought about change and a new way of thinking about what's right and wrong.

So when Annika made the choice to give the PGA a shot, some people were, not surprisingly, upset with her decision because she was confronting a norm that a number of folks in the golf community had grown accustomed to and just felt her appearance ran contrary to the way things were.  She did not get political on her decision.  The women organizations did.  The story of the the all-male country club as a discriminatory franchise got more attention in the media.  Some of the women organizations reiterated that the all-male country club did indeed reinforce the glass ceiling.  The golfers that stated that her move was a publicity stunt perhaps did not want their environment exposed and did not want it described like the women organizations were describing it.  They probably did not feel the same way that the women organizations did and maybe thought having grown up under the all-male franchise that their tradition was reverent.  Annika's move was not revolutionary, but it was noteworthy for how it made some folks in the golf community a little uncomfortable.

The all-male country club and restaurants still exist today in the good ol' US of A.  Women organizations are challenging some of them in court (You can catch up on some of the recent developments at the Discrimination and Country Clubs blog).  With more pressure, they may become a fixture of the past, but for now they will continue to welcome some very wealthy and well connected male patrons who simply feel more comfortable in a room full of dudes because it's what they know and how they've grown up and who may be oblivious to how their actions affect others or there may be others who could be conspiring in the darkest and shadiest of rooms on ways to further the oppression.

Anytime I wish to speak about an aspect of a society different than my own, I first take a look at how my society is doing with regards to that particular aspect.  For example, in my last blog, I wrote about the segregation of the sexes when it comes to the outdoor cafe in Morocco.  It would be easy to point fingers at Morocco's almost exclusive male establishments and regard them as discriminatory and perhaps oppressive, but the U.S., despite its many advances in bringing parity between genders, it still has places like the all-male country clubs and upscale restaurants much like Morocco that are exclusively male.  Morocco has no law preventing women from going to cafes, but it has social norms that are widely accepted especially in more rural areas where men are generally expected to interact with other men outside while women have their home as their conference space.  I wrote that my host mother and sisters were not disheartened by not being able to visit the cafe because they were not drawn to the large screen televisions showing football games, did not like the cloud of cigarette smoke that hovers idly in some cafes, and did not go because their friends were not going there.  Their responses made sense, but then I thought about what the women organizations had said about how the country club is the de facto board room for many CEO's.

Much like the all-male country club, work and politics is often a topic of conversation at the cafe.  Personally in many occasions, I've expressed a difficulty in finding an association or an individual that could help me with a specific task or project, and in some instances my cafe friends have been able to point me to people they know that could help.  I am pretty confident that in many cases this networking goes on at the cafe among government officials and business owners—a dear friend of mine once said that because the marquee cafes are better lit, have heating and AC, and have more comfortable chairs than the municipal offices, the cafe becomes the default city hall.  Also, because at times men travel distances to find employment, knowledge of the country and the economic environment of other areas is exchanged.  Thus, because women are absent, this wealth of information and any negotiations rest with the male cafe goers.  In this regard, the country club and the Moroccan cafe seem to be on par. 

So how do you remedy the situation?  How can Moroccan women entrepreneurs succeed without this wealth of information or exchange?  Back in November of last year, a Seattle-based NGO called The Center for Women and Democracy brought a delegation of women CEOs, lawyers, community leaders, and students to hold a forum to identify some of the obstacles facing Moroccan female leaders and to provide a place where ideas could be exchanged.  At the event I met a number of remarkable women who were trying to fill the information exchange void that exists among Moroccan women.  One association was led by Ilham Zhiri, Vice-President of AFEM, Association des Femmes Chefs d’Entreprise du Maroc.  Some of objectives of Ms. Zhiri's organization are to orient, inform, and assist women entrepreneurs in their search for a competitive advantage for their businesses, create a network of women business owners, encourage entrepreneurship among women, promote the image of women business owners, and organize forums and seminars for women to learn and to network with one another.   Another was a consortium of women who had pooled funds to invest in women-owned enterprises.  And in the political front, a few women who were part of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs were providing campaign training for women interested in running for elected office.  These are just a few examples of many exemplary women leaders I met who I believe will change the business, political, and perhaps the social environment of Morocco.

But will all Moroccan women benefit from their efforts?  After the event, I spoke to my counterpart, Amina Yabis, who I accompanied to the event and asked her what she thought about the different women she networked with.  She was skeptical that many of the initiatives by these dynamic organizations would ever reach the rural parts of Morocco.  She explained that some of the city women would never inconvenience themselves by going out to a remote part of the country where amenities are sometimes non-existent to hold their seminars.  Rural women, on the other hand, generally do not have funds to travel to the capital or another major city or they may be discouraged from traveling by their family or community especially if they are to travel on their own for safety reasons as most travelers are men and verbal and sometimes physical harassment is common.

My counterpart also noted that many city women cannot relate to the lives of rural women.  Some of the city women having traveled or studied abroad may act a little more pompous than usual and that attitude is sometimes reflected in their language when they make fun of the tough living conditions some of the women face on a daily basis.  Given this huge divide in lifestyles, it seems that the efforts of the Moroccan women in the urban hubs may take a while to reach a large swath of women who could seriously use the help.

My counterpart's remedy has been her association's community outreach work.  Through the Golden Buttons Association she organized a number of women to demand literacy courses from the Ministry of Education for adult women.  With the help of Office of Development and Cooperation (ODCO) and Sefrou Delegation of Artisana, she was also able to get training on how to establish a cooperative and to get weaving training for herself and a few other ladies.  This collective action was later converted to a cooperative named the Cherry Buttons Cooperative that now represents 40 women in the almost exclusively women-produced djellaba button handicraft.  Peace Corps helped her in the development from an association to a cooperative and they continue to collaborate with her on the formation of empowerment camps for young girls.  I will expand a bit more on the philosophy of the camp in a later blog, but basically the camp's target group is rural young women who for some reason or another dropped out of school, may be illiterate, and may not have access to resources or other women to connect to that could lend support to their micro-enterprise idea.

Last summer a university student that came to Morocco to study Arabic came to my hometown to find out about some of the work that I had been doing.  I explained that I was helping a women's coop that wishes to become a major vendor of the djellaba button handicraft, a craft that is almost entirely produced by women but sold by men.  I was so entranced by my zeal to help these women gain parity that I failed to recognize the societal implications of my activities.  She asked, "By helping these women over the men bazzarist, aren't you going to be putting some men out of work?"  That very well could be and by putting some of these middlemen out of work, I may be messing with the established Moroccan fabric making it difficult for the men to bring home the Halal bacon and adding more to the homemaker than she can handle.

When I feel I may be messing with the fabric of Moroccan society, I am encouraged, however, by a book I read and also blogged about titled Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen.  In this book, the author states and I'm paraphrasing to the max here that an increase in women's literacy has the effect of reducing infant mortality, reducing the number of births because women who continue going to school put off marriage and child rearing for a later age, changes the dynamics of the home as women who earn an income feel more empowered by their economic independence, and creates a more representative democracy as more women run for political office or participate in the process.  In a country where women's illiteracy stands at over 50% nationwide and even higher in rural areas, I feel it is absolutely necessary to try to work with women.

One time I saw my host father get chewed out by my host mother for bringing something for dinner (don’t know exactly what because my Arabic was still pretty rough at the time) that did not please her.  I was surprised by the outbreak, but rather happy to see that she didn’t hold back.  My host father was speechless.  Noticing that I had witnessed the entire ordeal, he turned to me and said in Spanish, “Yo soy el Ministro del Exterior y ella la Ministra del Interior”(I am the Minister of Exterior and she is the Minister of Interior).  That statement I think is very true of the understanding that each sex has of its role in some parts of Morocco today.  He doesn't infringe on her territory and she on his.  When either does, then naturally a scolding is due.

Morocco has made great strides over the last ten years to change the perception of the gender roles that my host dad has grown up under and probably wholeheartedly upholds.  The advent of the Moudawana, Morocco's new Family Code, gave women more rights in the case of divorce, custody of children, and inheritance issues.  In addition, the Kingdom put in a place a quota reserving 12% of all municipality seats for women.  These two measures are a step forward towards opening a path to women.  These early pioneers who have filled these inaugural posts will hopefully pass on their knowledge and experience to younger women and hence recreate their own support network thereby supplanting the need to join the boys at the cafe.  While I think it is necessary for women to gather to create a collective front, I do hope that at some point in time there will be a fusion of the interior and exterior ministries like there has been in the states.

The U.S. still has a ways to go in terms of bridging the gap between the sexes, but with more women attaining higher levels of education, joining the workforce or managing their own enterprise, and running for political office, the line between what is solely male and female has become blurry.  I am not advocating for a U.S. style work and household environment.  There are a lot of things about the U.S. lifestyle that I find dysfunctional.  I am only suggesting that there may be women who may not wish to fill a certain gender role and may wish to fulfill the dream of becoming the next industry leader and could probably be a better minister of exterior than her husband and that aspiration should be supported.

The country club is a great example that shows that many U.S. Americans are still working out territorial issues between the sexes.  Discrimination still persists.  Oppression is still in place and we sometimes do it without even thinking.  I'm not sure if Moroccan colleges and universities include gender courses in their curriculum.  These courses are helpful because at some point a Moroccan Annika may presents herself and with the help of women organizations a student may then finally see how a seemingly harmless and culturally accepted all-male environment that only a few seem to question could also be a place that is reinforcing the glass-ceiling in Moroccan society.