Blog 14: Syndiely

Today we had the opportunity to visit Anou, a cooperative started by a man named Dan who participated in Peace Corps, was kicked out of Yemen, and grew up in San Francisco. 

Anou was created because Dan noticed and wanted to change the unfairness surrounding wages for artisans in Morocco. He explained to us that typically artisans sell their craft (carpets, woodwork, etc.) to middlemen for a small price, that sometimes isn’t even money. Then middle men go to sell their products for a more reasonable price, yet they get to keep that profit. The issue with this is that the artisans typically only get paid around 40 cents per day. Anou is an umbrella cooperative that essentially hosts other co-ops within it so that artisans can sell their craft for a much more reasonable, fair wage earning a price of at least $7.50 per day, the artisan minimum wage in Morocco. 

 

Speaking with Dan was really exciting for us students. He highlighted many issues that we often don’t hear much about and he showed us that it is possible to try and solve them. While Anou has already done so much for artisans to have the opportunity to sell their products fairly, there is still so far to go. The goal is to make Anou fully artisan run, as in no Dan. At this point, they are not quite there yet. The hope is that they are both fully artisan run, and can still grow and prosper. Even though they are not there yet, Anou has seen immense growth that shows where we can go. 

 

All in all, it was a good day filled with learning about Anou and tasting pigeon meat in a pigeon pastilla for the first time. If you’re looking for a new rug are looking to try a cool new meat, Morocco seems to be the place.









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