Women’s Hand Made Products showcases creations of 50 cooperatives

AMMAN — Minister of Labour Ali Ghezawi on Thursday inaugurated the 10th exhibition of Women’s Hand Made Products in Amman, showcasing the creations of 50 cooperatives run by women from Amman and rural areas across the Kingdom. 

The event is an opportunity for Jordanian female producers to promote their creative products to new markets and to empower small-scale initiatives and self-employed workers by offering them a free space to market their products, according to a press release by the Ministry of Labour. 

The market was organised by the Ministry of Labour in cooperation with the Women’s Work Directorate and the GIZ-Employment Promotion Programme (EPP), the programme director, Thorsten Metz, told The Jordan Times. 

“We support women to seek economic opportunities as well as their creative ideas,” said Metz, noting that “a special focus lies on market niches, because of the potential that it has for women to establish self-employment or small-scale businesses”.

Maha Alakhal, owner of the Mime Designs brand, was one of the female entrepreneurs present at the exhibition. “We produce traditional Jordanian and Palestinian handmade goods carefully elaborated by ladies from unprivileged areas, whom we train and provide with the necessary accessories and materials,” Alakhal told The Jordan Times.

A series of traditional embroidered products adapted to “the new age” were showcased by the owner of Tima Designs, who aims to bring young generations closer to the embroidery tradition mixing it with new designs, ideas and materials. 

Chocolate maker Maisoon Abdel Khaled was displaying the homemade sweets of the Choco Rose brand, some high quality Italian chocolates moulded and filled with various flavours. 

“I attended a training specialised in chocolate making and that is what I have been doing since then — I just have this love for chocolate!” the artisan told The Jordan Times, outlining the production of her cake pops, cupcakes, chocolate-coated biscuits and dates. 

The exhibition also presented the public with handicraft ceramics, accessories, cosmetics and agricultural products.