Site designed by Elaine Bellezza
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Elaine Bellezza
Design, Build Capacity, & Link
The Weaving Project
The two most successful projects were with the women weavers and embroiderers. Aissatou was the most entrepreneurial. With no prompting she set up mini-ooms to teach young girls and to give tourists the opportunity to try weaving.
How did a sleepy village in North of Cameroon,
where temperatures hovered at 120 in the
hottest months, with no telephone access, little water, and barely subsistence farming become a bustling village featured on national television as the tourist destination of the season?
It was as much a surprise to me as anyone else. I began my Peace Corps service as a teacher posted to a remote village, two days travel to Cameroon’s capital. Speaking little French, moving into a bat-infested house and not recognizing nearly all food in the market, for some uncanny reason I joyously and easily settled into the community.
A colleague at school was leather-worker. I asked him to make me a bag that I designed. Everyone who saw it wanted one, so I took orders. Each item I designed was coveted by others and within six months we had a small village entrepreneurial activity going.
One day a busload of tourists pulled into the schoolyard. I ran out to talk to their guide. “We’ve heard that this village has exceptional crafts and we would like to buy them.” Astonished, I grabbed my leather-worker colleague. We hopped on took them to a few huts where people might be working on crafts, but none were. Disappointed they drove away, but not before I got the card and phone number of the tour agency.
In a meeting with the village chief, mayor, sous-prefet and elders I explained that this was an opportunity we couldn’t dismiss. Though skeptical, they cooperated and we formed an artisan collective, trained local guides and set up a village tour program. The tours included artisan homes and lunch would be at the home of a village women. Within a year we had over 40 tours. I got a grant from the Dutch embassy to rebuild a colonial home to serve as a gallery and museum. Then the Minister of Tourism decided to open the next tourist season with a huge celebration on national television in our sleepy village!
Tourists continually said that the interactive day in our village was the best they had. And when tourists tried their hand at making a traditional craft and saw it wasn't so easy, sales increased significantly.
The Embroidery Project
With these 21 women the project started. Within a few months we had so many orders that there was a 3 month waiting list. The women went from earning $4 a month doing petty commerce to making as much as $60 a month!
I had a beautiful piece of old Fulani embroidery. I asked all the village woman to make one, nearly all said they couldn’t. One woman agreed to try. I bought her the fabric and treads and created the design. When finished I paid her $20. The next day 20 women came saying, yes they also knew how!
From lectures I gave in the US, I created a credit fund to purchase raw materials, and set up a tourist welcoming center.
Many artisans wept when they saw their works valued and beautifully displayed.