About RFA
RFA's Story
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In 2006, Saida took the initiatve and presented the women's cooperative of Marrakech to the project entitled WOMEN MENA for the sake of "supporting women who work at home" In partnership with Planet Finance Morocco. Saida was so keen on the project to strengthen women, professional crafts and beneficiaries of the regulations.
Whenever we discussed marketing problems, we thought of the group work and how we can work together. This couldn’t happen, for we had problems of communication between the South and the North, East and West. We also thought of working in a small group in Marrakech and Casa in the beginning of the Network in 2007. But it did not work, too.
One day Saida pulled the women of the south together and suggested to change the old board and elect a new and highly motivated one. After the renewal of the board, the network began to have light in Marrakesh and in the entire region with women who work at home, in cooperatives and associations ; each cooperative and association has its own activities. Afterwards, they began to look for clients, exhibitions for marketing and schools for training and to advertise the network.
In 2009, the RFA signed a partnership with Design School in Copenhagen, which is the turning point in the network’s journey in the sense that it allowed the network to cross the borders and find out different cutures, markets and ideas. Thanks to this partnership, the network could receive trainings in governance, empowering cooperatives, financial autonomy of women artisans and communication skills, Family Code, Human Rights, fair trade, and conduct workshops in design development.
Now, the network has about 200 women beneficiaries who have been to different cities and countries to share their know-how and exhibit their products in various fairs. Among the fairs the network participated in, We can cite « Riad Art Expo » in 2012 in which the network and design school students received the « Best Creativity Award ». In 2016, the network could also target other women and other cities sharing what its members have learned at design school ; the number of beneficiaries has increased to 300 women.
The Network’s women have become financially and morally independent.
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