“Al-Wafaa” Development Association integrates traditional crafts with knowledge

The Syrian “Al-Wafaa” Development Association has established constructive and positive cooperation with local communities in all Syrian areas with the aim of launching humanitarian, relief and development initiatives for reviving hope in the hearts of a lot of Syrians, who have suffered from the cruelty of the war in the country.

The association, which was set up two months after the start of the events in the country- on May, 2011- as an initiative called the “Loyalty to the Homeland” for supporting the families of the martyrs and conveying the reality of events in the country to the world , moved in 2014 to work on several projects for supporting all Syrian families that have been affected by the war.

“The projects aim to help the affected Syrian families so that they have a source of livelihood to support themselves,” Mrs. Remal Saleh, the Association’s Director told Syria Times.

She added: “We have held scores of courses and workshops on sewing in the Damascene “Al-Midan” neighborhood for women who were displaced and affected during the years of war… Around 200 women got benefit from these courses….We also revived traditional crafts and preserved them from extinction through containing the shops of craftsmen   in the “Orient House for Heritage” the craftsmen- whose workshops were destroyed in Damascus countryside because of terror war,”

This historic house, which dates back to the end of the Mamluk era,  has become an incubator for 12 crafts , as it was rehabilitated by the association in 2018 to become a center for training the traditional crafts and teaching those who are interested in practicing them.

Mrs. Saleh said  that the association has built partnerships with the relevant institutions to turn the project into an academy for teaching Syrian heritage since craftsmen are “Syrian messages to abroad” and it is necessary to preserve their crafts and pass them to  future generations.

After the restoration of the house, the association participated with the “Syrian Trust for Development” with the support of Mrs. Asmaa al-Assad to ensure the tools and means of production and to open a window for selling products in Tkeyyeh Sulaymaniyah in Damascus.

The association also sought to integrate the craft with knowledge through establishing a heritage library for specialists and researchers in the Syrian heritage, taking into consideration that the work in the field of development is based on love for the country, belonging to it, and believing in its capabilities and experiences, according to Mrs. Saleh.

Besides containing the craftsmen in the ancient house, the association launched the “House of Creativity” project, which aims to develop the skills of Syrian youth through holding many vocational and educational courses for developing their skills in many professions, such as hairdressing, nursing, sewing, languages, accounting, and others.

The other projects that have been carried out by the association are the rehabilitation and restoration of the Damascene Oud in the “Sarouja” market and reviving Al-Aghbani Craft in the city of “Douma” as this craft was the main craft for the women there before the war.

“The number of women who used to  work in this craft in the past were about 4000 women, so the association started this project with about 4 women who weave Aghabani fabrics, and now there are about 400 ones,” Mrs. Saleh declared.

She went on to say: “The association is currently trying to promote the project to be economic at a high level by attracting investors and businessmen to support these projects. We have also participated in exhibitions held by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism, and we participated in the Damascus International Fair for several years.”

“We receive daily  dozens of questions about the project, which will be  productive in the future besides being educational. The youth who learn these crafts today will be the ones who will be followed in the future,” she concluded.

Interviewed by: Basma Qaddour