Yadaweya (Hand-made) is the first online social business company to specialise in Egyptian handicrafts. Awarded Synergos's Social Innovator Award in 2013, the company aims to link craftsmen all over the country with online customers, through Fair Trade and go the extra mile in providing background on their crafts using social-networking Websites. The company's collections come from 15 different regions and communities in Egypt, among them Nubia, Sinai, Shalateen by the Red Sea, Naqada and Hagaza from Qena, Siwa, Sohag, Fayyum, Old Cairo and the Delta region. “Our target is to promote Egypt's heritage,” said Usama Ghazali, the company's founder and an environmental and heritage researcher. Ghazali believes that many young people are ill-informed about Egyptian handicrafts, and the company's team of five people, responsible for commercial arrangements, photography, marketing and Web presence, are trying to remedy this. Yadaweya was established over a year ago, and today it is working with NGOs like Misr Al-Kheir, Mahmiyat Al-Bahr Al-Ahmar and Koum Al-Dabaa to get its message across. The company also organises workshops to develop handicrafts to meet market quality standards as well as to promote them. However, the work is not always easy. “The absence of private-sector and government support for the sector has meant that some forms of art and craft have become extinct. Nearly half of qualified workers have taken up another profession as a result,” Ghazali says. When he was in France, Germany and the UK he found that the authorities there worked with the private sector in order to promote the countries' heritage, and he was determined to do something similar in Egypt. As for the company's future plans, Ghazali mentions “a mobile application for children that tells them about their heritage.” This should be another step forward in reviving the country's handicrafts and adding to their economic value. The writer is a freelance journalist.
