CAIRO - Under a cardboard sign with the words ‘Crafts are disappearing: let's save them', Aida Abdel-Salam arranges her leather products. Aida works and lives in Old Cairo, a district famous for tanning, the process of making leather, which does not easily decompose, from the skins of animals, which easily do. She started helping her husband with his tanning after the January 25 revolt, to help with the household expenses. “Everything is getting expensive. Whenever I have any money, it evaporates from my hand. We don't have enough money, so I decide to help my husband,” Aida, 42, told The Gazette. Her husband's monthly income is not fixed. “Some days there's money, others there isn't”. She complains of the high prices, to the extent that her five children and her husband eat meat only once per month. One of her neighbours advised her to do a training course for fancy leatherwork, organised by an NGO called the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women. She did the course and now works with leather, which she gets from a workshop in Old Cairo and then works in her home. After finishing her work, she sends it back to the workshop. The main problem with this industry, she says, is that leather is so expensive. She says that, before the revolution, it cost LE7,000 per tonne, but now the cost has risen to LE14,000. “These leather carpets are popular with tourists. They can be hung on walls or put on floor. But now there aren't any tourists to buy them,” she added, with despair in her eyes. Aida and her husband's three sons work in the tanneries; their two daughters stay at home. She said that their children's teachers were to blame for their not continuing with their education. “My sons, aged 23, 21 and 19, left school after the preparatory stage. When they didn't do their homework, their teachers beat them, which made them hate school and go to work with their father,” Aida explained. Some people are demonstrating against the recent revolt, which toppled Mubarak, wishing that the ‘good' old days under the former leader would come back. But Aida sees things differently. “Of course, now is better than before. We were robbed for 30 years. All I hope is that the new President will be kind to the poor people and reduce prices,” she added hopefully. The Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) recently held a seminar, entitled ‘Crafts are disappearing: let's save them', attended by the beneficiaries of the training programme held two months ago, including Aida. The seminar highlighted the importance of industries like tanning and pottery, and the fact that they are disappearing because they have been neglected. “We help these workers in these industries keep their jobs and find jobs for their sons,” said Iman Beibars, the ADEW Chairwoman. Founded in 1987, ADEW, a non-governmental organisation, aims to create suitable conditions for Egyptian women, especially female heads of households, at two levels: the societal and the personal. At the societal level, the association seeks to change the culture of the community by changing laws and policies and women's image in society. At the personal level, they seek to empower women by giving them life skills in various areas through their programmes and activities. This training project was funded by Sawiris Foundation for Development, which aims to contribute to Egypt's human development by supporting initiatives that promote job creation through training, quality education and access to micro credit. “We have trained 175 people to be potters and found jobs for them; we are training another 600 to be tanners and we'll help them find jobs,” added Beibars. “This is helping to develop society. We need more co-operation from the private sector and businesspeople.” Omnia Hemdan, 18, has also benefited from this project. She didn't complete her education, dropping our after the elementary stage, because her father stopped her from going to school as it was a long way from their home. However, she didn't give up learning and joined the training programme for potters. "I've learnt how to make pottery mugs and small vases. Most people think that this profession is difficult and very hard work. Actually, it's easy, but it just needs a lot of patience," Omnia told this newspaper. Pottery is one of Egypt's most ancient crafts. Potters in times gone by were more artists than craftsmen. Excavated Pharaonic tombs have yielded an abundance of artifacts, establishing the reputation of the Ancient Egyptian potters. Omnia wants people to be aware of this, lest her profession should die out.“The revolution encouraged me to look for a job, instead of just staying at home, waiting for a suitor to come along. I thought of pottery. "Anyone who says that there aren't any jobs after the revolution is lying. Even when I get married, I will continue working as a potter, in order to educate other people, so this profession won't disappear."
