microfinance

When I arrived in Egypt I had a plan to retain traditional craftsmanship through the empowering development of microfinance.  I was in love with microfinance.  I loved that it was not a handout, that it was partnering with poor people to launch their own initiatives and that it seemed so empowering and dignifying.  So I had this vision that I was going to use microfinance, but I wasn’t sure which artisan skill I was going to focus on (initially I was leaning towards much of the beautiful mother of pearl work and copper work that is done in Egypt…) 

I spent my first two months of working on Ayadi reasearching and meeting with anybody and everybody that would talk to me from the spheres of: artisans, microfinance organizations/institutions, development agencies, various non-profits combating poverty, and visiting various parts of the country to see first-hand artisans at work.  I decided to work with the khayameya (traditional tentmakers) – more on this later.