Expert in modeling and design of handicrafts, Ali Khadher has developed a passion for the craft of pottery very young. At 43-year-old, he finally turned his passion into a business, hoping to see the pottery reborn and developed again from his region. In 2012, in the lack of a legal framework for collective craft companies, he founded “The Rouached Cooperative company” for pottery in Gafsa.
Ali found his inspiration and determination as entrepreneur in the history of his village Rouached and its whole community. “It’s an Amazigh craft that was originally passed down from mother to daughter and is inspired by Berber shapes and symbols found on archaeological sites in the region. My goal is to build on this heritage to develop collections that also adapt to the market in terms of design, coloring and trends, and to enhance the value of this art by encouraging young people in our region to enter the craft sector.”
Nestled in the mountains, the village of Rouached has always drawn the raw material for pottery in hard conditions by hand and transported this precious sand for the potters on donkeys. “Today, thanks to our work, we have been able to correct the roads facilitating the access to the raw material and improves the working conditions of the women potters, as well as providing employment for the men of the region.”
In 2012, the village of Rouached had 150 families with one or two members working either in pottery or Mergoum. “When we started our support last year with Mashrou3i, only five women were mastering the modelling techniques. Today, thanks to Mashrou3i, 20 young women from the region have been trained for almost 6 months to save this tradition, encouraging other young people to become entrepreneurs.”
Thanks to Mashrou3i’s support and the synergy with UNIDO’s Creative Tunisia project, another 20 young women have joined the training program, enabling them to move out of their comfort zones and produce higher value-added products such as tableware. “This action has had a snowball effect. We estimate that there are now 60 women working with pottery in Rouached, and they are earning a better income from their sales. The men also now participate in this family work, by extracting, modelling, transporting or even selling it.”
Supported by Mashrou3i, Ali sees the social entrepreneurship in his region as a solution for a sustainable development, the financial independence of women and above all the encouragement of entrepreneurship among young graduates.
“Through the cooperative, we are working to empower women. They have become more creative and active players in the development of their community. The living conditions of her family have also improved. We want to turn Rouached into a tourist village, introduce new activities such as showcasing the pottery work, or the visit of archaeological tours in the mountain.”
Representatives of the Rouached cooperative worked side by side throughout 2021 with Mashrou3i’s experts to establish an action plan in 3 steps for the value chain: extraction, processing and marketing. They especially focused on the weakest part, processing, by developing shaping, colouring and modelling of their products.
“The young graduates of our group have benefited most from the training and coaching on the social business model and social business plan provided by Mashrou3i’s experts through the HP LIFE program. They are now ready to call out for funds from the bank or support institutions to carry out their projects. Two young people are particularly advanced; they will soon be able to launch individually their businesses while continuing to benefit from the group dynamics of our cooperative.”
“Thanks to Mashrou3i, we are more than confident that our projects will succeed in the future. We have many challenges ahead of us, especially to create the pottery village in Rouached and to ensure that all the members of the 152 families make a living from it, to create a regional brand recognized as such, a demonstration center and a showroom to facilitate the creation of our tourist tour.”