Eri Handcraft: training as a tool for redemption

Training, learning a trade and, thanks to the skills acquired, finding employment or setting up micro-entrepreneurship. This is the Eri Handcraft centre in Asmara, the Smile Project entirely dedicated to women

Last spring’s trip to Eritrea was aimed at taking us to visit the places where Smile Project works: after the orphanage in Godaif, the next stop was Eri Handcraft, a training centre where women with even very young children can attend weaving, embroidery, sewing, or cooking and housekeeping workshops. By acquiring these new skills, the participants can then work under better conditions in local companies, or start up forms of micro-entrepreneurship, thus not only becoming independent, but also making an important contribution to their families. The women who are taking part in the project come from the poorest areas of the country. Once they have completed the six-month course, they will return home and bring with them new professional skills, thus becoming a positive driving force for the community they come from.
Last detail, but what a detail it is not: there is a crèche in the facility where mothers can leave their children while they attend classes. In a country with a high birth rate of young mothers, this simply makes all the difference in terms of the feasibility of a project.

Eri Handcraft is a village within the city, consisting of several buildings. Our visit began in the embroidery workshop, where the students create magnificent decorated fabrics, and then moved on to the weaving course room, where we noticed an important novelty: whereas last year the workshop, which had only ten looms, was at a standstill, this year it is self-sufficient and working at full capacity. In the next shed, we visited the fabric dyeing workshop: amidst the bright colours, from yellow to blue to orange, some women dyed the yarns using the boiling method, while others wove the resulting fabrics into beautiful scarves. Talking to some of them, we perceived a great desire to learn, to work and to undertake new activities that could improve the lives of their families.
In addition to the sewing and weaving workshops, there is also a cookery school and a catering and housekeeping workshop, designed to acquire useful skills for later work in accommodation.

Very important, of course, is the contribution of the teachers, whom we have observed dedicating themselves to their work as a real mission: it is no coincidence that one of the Smile Project’s objectives is to financially support their work, and help them do it to the best of their ability.

This year, Eri Handcraft came into full swing and was able to achieve many important goals: suffice it to say that over 200 women have been trained in recent months and have immediately found employment or set up small businesses, thus making a decisive contribution to their families and communities of origin.

Back home, Eri Handcraft was among the first projects to which we devoted our energies: we have purchased new tools for boiling and dyeing fabrics, gloves and masks to protect the health of the workers. The next goal will be to renovate and secure the kitchens in the facility.