Tuesday, July 2, 2024 at 9:16 p.m.
Marrakech – The “Doum For Women” cooperative, established in the territory of the prefecture of Marrakech, embodies a successful model of social and solidarity economy structures, supported by the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) as part of its “Income Improvement and Economic Inclusion of Young People” program, in order to develop a new generation of projects likely to enhance local potential by adopting the sector approach.
Created in 2019, this women’s cooperative, which benefited from financial support estimated at 414,000 DH, including 248,000 DH as a contribution from the INDH, in addition to technical support, operates in the field of manufacturing and design of products based on plant materials, which are highly prized by consumers both Moroccan and foreign.
This innovative project has helped improve the incomes of more than 250 rural women in difficult situations and out-of-school girls, who work in the manufacture of women’s handbags from natural products, including doum and raffia.
This social and solidarity economy structure provides training for beneficiaries, in partnership with the Training and Reintegration Center for Traditional Trades in Marrakech, before integrating them into the cooperative.
The implementation of this project is part of the INDH’s ongoing efforts using an innovative approach aimed at supporting high value-added projects and contributing to the economic inclusion of women and girls.
This project also reflects the INDH’s desire to support social and solidarity economy structures, to promote their activities and to promote local economic activity.
In a statement to MAP, Samira Madrane, president and founder of the cooperative, stressed that “Doum Pour les Femmes” has succeeded in creating jobs for rural women in difficult situations, from different areas of the Marrakech-Safi region, and for young girls who have dropped out of school, thanks to the support of the INDH, with the aim of strengthening the empowerment of beneficiaries and ensuring them a stable income.
In this context, she highlighted the importance of the financial and technical support of the INDH, which mainly takes the form of equipment, training of beneficiary women and the acquisition of raw materials, so that the cooperative’s products meet the requirements of the foreign market.
In this sense, she explained that this support from the INDH allowed the cooperative to improve its performance, through the acquisition of equipment, the development of the work space, the purchase of raw materials and the improvement of the working conditions of women within this structure.
He continued that the cooperative, whose products meet international standards in this area, targets several foreign markets, notably American, European and Korean, by working with prestigious international brands that market its products.
It should be noted that at the level of the prefecture of Marrakech, the INDH supported 173 projects within the framework of its program relating to the “Improvement of Income and Economic Inclusion of Youth”, 40% of which were in rural areas, for the benefit of 154 cooperatives, which enabled the creation of more than 1,900 jobs and contributed to improving the income of the beneficiaries.
