Description
Melkite Palestinian Embroidery Workshop, Ramallah: This organisation began in 1988 as a response to the desperate need of families at the outbreak of the first Intifada. It soon was serving 400 (now 270) women, providing materials and designs to women in surrounding villages. Women suddenly became breadwinners as men were imprisoned, disabled or deported.
Due to low sales, women occasionally have been sent home with no work. There are “. . . continuing hard economic conditions and travel restrictions. The wall affects areas where some workers live; we have very limited access to Jerusalem where there are foreign tourists.”
The Workshop’s products are among Hadeel’s most popular – purses, bags, hangings and cushion covers. In 2008 Palcrafts gave them a grant to travel to Dubai to secure orders, and in 2012 gave a grant to help them publish a new catalogue. A grant from Palcrafts in 2015 enabled them to purchase a printer/fax/scanner so they can improve their promotion of products.