Crafts Development – Association for Charity and Development

Association for charity and development (ACD) in collaboration with the Lebanese foundation for permanent civil peace (LFPCP), within the program of Qudurat el Chamal, implemented by GIZ and under UDP_NL program, funded by European Union and Germany, launched a new project in April 2021 about “enhance social cohesion through cultural exchange and empowerment for handcrafters and entrepreneurs”.

I. Project Objectives:

Our Project is about enhancing the social cohesion between Zgharta caza youth through cultural exchange and empowerment.

A cohesive society can be understand as a society that strives for social inclusion and builds up the necessary social capital to create a common sense of belonging, and as a place where prospects exist for upward social mobility. Conceptually poverty reduction and sustaining long-term growth (growth sustainability) will have impact on social cohesion.

The country is facing daily challenges due to political differences and the severe deterioration of the purchasing power. These challenges are risking the increase of tensions between its members.

Artisans, especially women are struggling economically in marketing their products. Many of the artisans are force to quit their professions and look for other sources of income due to high competition and severe economic crisis in the country. Without the support of the local CSO, handicrafts sector in Zgharta like all other regions will not survive the economic crisis with the low governmental support.

Handcrafts are very symbolic and could help the youth exchange their cultures and increase their sense of belonging and patriotism. In addition to, a study done in 2015 and after creating a booklet for the artisans in that time. we understood crafters struggles very well. and that brought us back to recreate a full project that enhance crafters in the caza while facing this economic crisis. Unfortunately, the handcrafters are facing the following challenges:

Lack of knowledge in the needs of the market
Low quality designs and finishing
Lack of knowledge and skills in branding & packaging
High production cost
Lack of social media literacy and basic knowhow of digital age marketing

In this particularly worsening economic crisis coupled with the disastrous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, handcrafters in Zgharta are in urgent need of support “to keep their head above the water”. Our project proposes to enhance social cohesion between the villages of Zgharta-Caza and north Lebanon by supporting the handcrafts community in a rescue initiative for a fragile sector on the verge of a definitive collapse. The initiatives consist of improving the capacities of the handcrafters in 52 villages, while creating a chain and community between them to support each and get organize collectively through a platform for increased exposure and visibility as well as sales.

II. Project activities:

The activities and the deliverables that were provide to enhance the social cohesion between artisans and entrepreneurs while insisting on the exchange culture between artisans and entrepreneurs are listed as below:

Activity 1: Outreaching & Data Analysis

Outreaching the handcrafters in Zgharta Caza, by creating template that answer questions about cultural background, number of artisans types of handcrafts and the age of artisans, to understand the orientation of the young generation and build technical trainings based on the results that create a data analysis.

Activity 2: Capacity Development

After collecting the template and analyzing the data, artisans are facing many problems in developing their businesses. Empowering artisans and entrepreneurs should include trainings in all their weak point. Those training, emphasis social cohesion between artisans, it will help them to learn, meet and connect and it creates a relationship between each other.
Those trainings include:

- Marketing Development: Branding, Digital Marketing, Content Creation and Pricing Product Development
- Product Design (product uses, customer needs and product creativity), Product Quality, Product Finishing, Product Safety and Packaging

In addition to those trainings, we believed that some artisans would need additional private training to enhance their brands and develop their skills by delivering private hours to follow up on the indorsement of the output of the training and to keep them on track.

Activity 3: Community

Create a community-group for handcrafters, to share their struggles and their ambitious together. The main concept of the community is to let them meet and prepare for events and activities in the future, to improve their quality of life and be creative in the society. Artisans Participation in this exhibition will emphasis cohesion with other youths coming from different areas. The main aim to the community is to create a connection between the artisans and help each other to solve their problems.

This project convinced the artisans being united and creating this lobby is important to improve their work, more than the competition spirit. At the end, every person has its customers. Changing the mindset was important to each one of them. This community has improved the communication and exchange culture in addition to, creating social cohesion between artisans from different area, different culture and different education level.

Moreover, this community will not stop its activity during the project its aim to stay in contact even after the project.

Activity 4: Cooperative Store in Old Zgharta

Establish a cooperative store in Old Zgharta for handcrafters to

- Practice the values of social cohesion and peace building between each other, the store will be their reference
- Exhibit the work of the handcrafters and sell their products

Why in old zgharta, because Old Zgharta is a historical space that is in Zgharta, next to many landmarks very well-known historically.

We opened the store on the 26 of November 2021, in the presence of the Head of GIZ and LFPCP, with many invitees from Zgharta in collaboration with the Fraternity of the Immaculate Conception.

Activity 5: Common Social Media Platform

Create a common social media platform for the handcrafters in Zgharta Caza (from Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok) and update the available website. These platforms will:

- Exchange the people values, culture and ideas and make them connected together
- Give visibility and increase exposure to the artisans together from one Caza
- Help the handcrafters to sell their products.
- Connect with new artisans

Booklet Description

The Association for Charity and Development launched the first edition of an exclusive directory based on personal effort.

This directory introduces the modest craftsmen from Zgharta-Zawieh and their artistic products. Their wide variety of merchandise caters to any occasion such as housewarming, welcoming a newborn, wedding, Christmas, birthdays and other.

Supporting the craft-work in Zgharta-Zawieh is our first development project.

This directory is just one of the answers to promote the craft-works. These people are artistic, creative and want to excel. They work from their homes. They put all their energy and talent to deliver quality products. For most, their work is their only source of income which encouraged us to support them so they stay at their homes and live in dignity.

Choose their products and request your personalized needs. Help the craftsmen of Zgharta-Zawieh by giving them a chance to grow their business.

Enjoy one of Zgharta-Zawieh hidden treasures in the following pages, prosper, evolve and progress their talents.

Dr Karam Karam

Vice president, Association of Charity and Development

February 2015

Click on the pictures below to check the website and the picture of the event

Get the booklet for free

تعريف عن الكتيّب

أطلقت مؤسسة الخير والانماء الطبعة الأولى من دليل فريد مبني على جهد شخصي

هذا الدليل يقدم الحرفيين المتواضعين من زغرتا-الزاوية الى جانب منتجاتهم الفنية. ان التشكيلة الواسعة من البضائع تلبي احتياجات كافة المناسبات مثل الانتقال الى بيت جديد, الترحيب بحديثي الولادة, الزفاف, عيد الميلاد المجيد, أعياد الميلاد, الخ

اعانة حرفيي زغرتا-الزاوية هي مشروعنا الأول للتنمية

هذا الدليل هو مجرد إجابة واحدة لتعزيز الاعمال اليدوية، هؤلاء الأشخاص هم فنانون, خلاقون, و يريدون التفوق. معظمهم يعملون من منازلهم. لقد وضعوا كل طاقاتهم و مواهبهم لتقديم منتجات ذات جودة عالية. بالنسبة للأكثرية منهم, هذا العمل هو المصدر الوحيد للدخل وهذا ما شجعنا اكثر على دعم هذه المجموعة لمساعدتهم على البقاء في ارضهم والعيش بكرامة

اختاروا من منتجاتهم لتلبية احتياجاتكم الخاصة و ادعموا حرفيي زغرتا-الزاوية من خلال منحهم فرصة لتنمية أعمالهم اكثر

تمتعوا بأحد كنوز زغرتا-الزاوية الخفية في الصفحات التالية, وساعدوا في تطوير المواهب

د. كرم كرم

نائب رئيس مؤسسة الخير والانماء

شباط 2015

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