Support Meryem to complete the Women’s House
Beschermde donatie
Support Meryem and the women of Imloul to complete their communal house
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Between the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert, the village of Imloul sits quietly along the Dadès river in Morocco. Houses are made of earth and rocks and are organised along the sides of the hills. The majority of the population is Amazigh (Indigenous people of Morocco), recognisable by their clothing, their production of crafts and in their openness towards visitors.
The women of the village are a very engaged and skillful community, dedicated to the management of the house and the family. They have organised an association with the goals of financial independence and strengthening of their community. Their president, Meryem, returned to Imloul after receiving her education and has committed herself to helping her community in all ways.
In 2019, the community started to build a women’s house for the association where the women could bake and sell bread and other products, manufacture carpets following traditional techniques, and store locally-sourced honey. However, after building the bearing walls with the rammed earth technique, the work stopped due to lack of money. Funding is difficult to obtain as grant agencies want assurance there is a physical structure where the association is housed, yet, there cannot be a physical structure without funding.
This is why, together with the local community, we are seeking funding to complete this project. We met with the association members to discuss which activities to include in the building design and how to optimise the layout using natural locally-sourced sustainable materials.
Given these conversations and goals, we have designed with the women a building which contains a room where children can play while their mothers are working, a communal kitchen with a store front to the street to allow for selling of baked goods, a workshop area with storage for the production of carpets, a communal room for association related meetings and an office.
In addition, following a discussion with the community about recurrent droughts and the village's water management, we have expanded the project to include a soil regeneration program to tackle the ongoing desertification. We aim to re-green the area through water retention measures and also improve women’s farming activities. To accomplish this, we are collaborating with Perma Atlas, an organization which has successfully implemented similar projects in surrounding areas of Morocco and with an international agronomist who specializes in regenerative agriculture during drought.
Over 50 village women will be the direct beneficiaries of this project, as it will provide them space to support their association activities. Their children and families will also benefit from improved income-generating activities (and subsequent impacts of the increased income) of the women. In addition, local builders and crafts people will be provided employment and gain new knowledge and expand their building skills given our collaboration with Studio 2111, which has extensive experience of building domes with adobe bricks (locally produced mud bricks). And the larger community of Imloul will benefit, from the increased revenue generation, improved environmental conditions and overall increased community well-being.
Your contribution will be spent entirely on expenses needed to complete the first phase of this wonderful project, which includes a communal room, a kitchen, a toilet and an office. Specifically it will be used to purchase local construction materials and tools and to pay the salaries of the local builders and crafts people during the duration of the project. It will also allow us to provide food during the construction process since we like to work and dine together!
Our team has been actively working on this project from all around the world. We had several online meetings with the women and local builders in order to develop and complete the [re]design together. We aim to start building by the end of September. Therefore, we hope to reach our fundraising goal by the end of May 2021, to organise the building site, start the adobe bricks production and other preparatory works.
We will be deeply grateful to each of you for believing and supporting our project! Collectively, your individual support will enable us to complete the Women’s House of Imloul! Each and every one of you can take us a step further. Even just sharing our story, you will help us reach our goal!
Thank you! :D
_______________________________________________________________________________________
We are an international group of down to earth designers. We are passionate about sustainability and love to build with raw earth. During a collaborative project of the Women’s House of Ouled Merzoug (Morocco) which we successfully completed in 2019, we had the opportunity to connect with members of the women’s association from the neighbouring village of Imloul. Since then, together with the women, local builders and the community, we have been working to complete this wonderful project of the Women’s House!
Website Facebook Instagram
Between the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert, the village of Imloul sits quietly along the Dadès river in Morocco. Houses are made of earth and rocks and are organised along the sides of the hills. The majority of the population is Amazigh (Indigenous people of Morocco), recognisable by their clothing, their production of crafts and in their openness towards visitors.
The women of the village are a very engaged and skillful community, dedicated to the management of the house and the family. They have organised an association with the goals of financial independence and strengthening of their community. Their president, Meryem, returned to Imloul after receiving her education and has committed herself to helping her community in all ways.
In 2019, the community started to build a women’s house for the association where the women could bake and sell bread and other products, manufacture carpets following traditional techniques, and store locally-sourced honey. However, after building the bearing walls with the rammed earth technique, the work stopped due to lack of money. Funding is difficult to obtain as grant agencies want assurance there is a physical structure where the association is housed, yet, there cannot be a physical structure without funding.
This is why, together with the local community, we are seeking funding to complete this project. We met with the association members to discuss which activities to include in the building design and how to optimise the layout using natural locally-sourced sustainable materials.
Given these conversations and goals, we have designed with the women a building which contains a room where children can play while their mothers are working, a communal kitchen with a store front to the street to allow for selling of baked goods, a workshop area with storage for the production of carpets, a communal room for association related meetings and an office.
In addition, following a discussion with the community about recurrent droughts and the village's water management, we have expanded the project to include a soil regeneration program to tackle the ongoing desertification. We aim to re-green the area through water retention measures and also improve women’s farming activities. To accomplish this, we are collaborating with Perma Atlas, an organization which has successfully implemented similar projects in surrounding areas of Morocco and with an international agronomist who specializes in regenerative agriculture during drought.
Over 50 village women will be the direct beneficiaries of this project, as it will provide them space to support their association activities. Their children and families will also benefit from improved income-generating activities (and subsequent impacts of the increased income) of the women. In addition, local builders and crafts people will be provided employment and gain new knowledge and expand their building skills given our collaboration with Studio 2111, which has extensive experience of building domes with adobe bricks (locally produced mud bricks). And the larger community of Imloul will benefit, from the increased revenue generation, improved environmental conditions and overall increased community well-being.
Your contribution will be spent entirely on expenses needed to complete the first phase of this wonderful project, which includes a communal room, a kitchen, a toilet and an office. Specifically it will be used to purchase local construction materials and tools and to pay the salaries of the local builders and crafts people during the duration of the project. It will also allow us to provide food during the construction process since we like to work and dine together!
Our team has been actively working on this project from all around the world. We had several online meetings with the women and local builders in order to develop and complete the [re]design together. We aim to start building by the end of September. Therefore, we hope to reach our fundraising goal by the end of May 2021, to organise the building site, start the adobe bricks production and other preparatory works.
We will be deeply grateful to each of you for believing and supporting our project! Collectively, your individual support will enable us to complete the Women’s House of Imloul! Each and every one of you can take us a step further. Even just sharing our story, you will help us reach our goal!
Thank you! :D
_______________________________________________________________________________________
We are an international group of down to earth designers. We are passionate about sustainability and love to build with raw earth. During a collaborative project of the Women’s House of Ouled Merzoug (Morocco) which we successfully completed in 2019, we had the opportunity to connect with members of the women’s association from the neighbouring village of Imloul. Since then, together with the women, local builders and the community, we have been working to complete this wonderful project of the Women’s House!
Organisator
terre à terre asbl
Organisator
Schaerbeek
