As part of its humanitarian and development role, the International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO) inaugurated the village of the late Ali Saleh Al Lahib in the Ain Draham region of Jendouba Province in northwestern Tunisia. The project serves as a business incubator for small development and craft projects, to develop the capabilities of rural women, raise their efficiency and improve their economic, social, cultural, and educational status, in cooperation with the Olive Branch Network of development associations in Tunisia.

The village, funded by the proceeds of a third of the endowment of the late Ali Saleh Al Lahib in the Charitable Organization, includes 6 departments, two houses, and an agricultural complex, and extends over an area approaching a hectare. It represents an incubator for many craft and agricultural activities that rural women work on in Ain Draham, under the supervision of the Agricultural Development Complex for Rural Women and sponsored by the Olive Branch Network.

Project Areas:

The project, which benefits 3,000 women and their families, includes a number of work units. The first specializes in cheese making, which represents a workspace and contains various equipment. It also supervises a herd of milk-producing goats, and the second is concerned with the distillation of medicinal and aromatic oils, where the forest product can be used. Some plants are also planted inside air-conditioned agricultural houses inside the village and in the homes of women participating in the project.

Furthermore, the third unit includes agricultural products in which spices, traditional bread, and mountain oak flour are made, while the fourth unit includes textiles and craft products such as sewing and embroidery activities, and the manufacture of traditional utensils and antiques.

In this context, the project adopts the working mechanisms of the social and solidarity economy. Women working in the medicinal and aromatic oils distillation unit, for example, are divided into work teams: one team works to collect plants from the forest, another produces other types of plants at home, and a third performs the distillation process.

Moreover, the project also includes an exhibition hall that represents a point of display and sale of various products produced by the estate, a management headquarters, and a meeting room, and a digital system is being launched to market the project’s products via the Internet.

Project Objectives: 

The project aims to attract and employ women living in rural areas, provide job opportunities to obtain sustainable livelihood resources, support family cohesion in rural areas, combat poverty, instill a culture of work, pay attention to protecting the environment and biodiversity, and build an equipped facility that represents an incubator village for development and craft projects for rural women. As well as providing livelihood resources for families, improving the status of rural women, marketing village products, achieving financial sustainability for the project, valuing the local product, and diversifying production.

In addition, the village represents a way for the advancement of Tunisian women in the rural environment by attracting women and integrating them into craft and agricultural activities that are in line with the nature of the region, which is mountainous, fertile, rainy, and rich in natural forest products, and providing income-generating job opportunities.

With such projects, women can take care of their families and not allow their daughters to drop out of school in order to go out to work, which is a widespread phenomenon in this region. Moreover, providing a livelihood that preserves the dignity of rural women is the best way to address the phenomenon of employing minors, as the village project represents the foundations on which the process of family advancement and cohesion in rural areas is based.

The desired impact of the village is reflected in improving the quality of work, expanding the number of beneficiaries directly and indirectly, increasing production and improving productivity, and thus raising the standard of living of rural families economically, educationally, and culturally.

Ain Draham

"Ain Draham", which is located in northwestern Tunisia, is a mountainous, forested area par excellence with a rural character that extends along the Khmer Mountains in the north of Jendouba state.

These areas are characterized by a cold climate and rugged terrain, where large amounts of rain and snowfall annually. They are characterized by dense forests rich in diverse vegetation, and plains and agricultural areas are scarce.

In light of these difficult natural and climatic conditions, rural women live in very harsh conditions, as the number of family members is often high and the man is unemployed in a rural environment where various aspects of development such as factories and others are absent.

Under these circumstances, rural women have no choice but to go out to work on the estates of large farmers for very low wages and without any rights. In addition, many families are forced to remove their daughters from school and send them to work as domestic helpers through intermediaries in major cities, a phenomenon that these areas have been known for many years.

Olive Branch Network in brief

The Olive Branch Network of Development Associations includes 26 Tunisian non-profit social development associations, specializing in building a solidarity society based on comprehensive human values and caring for people in their health, living, scientific, cultural, and spiritual needs in order to value and employ their capabilities to advance society.

Furthermore, the network enjoys the trust of many Kuwaiti charitable institutions, including the IICO, Zakat House, International Mercy, Qawafil Association for Relief and Development, Balad Al Khair, and the General Secretariat of Endowments, through the implementation of many projects and programs. This includes seasonal relief campaigns, projects to empower livelihoods, sponsor orphans, dig wells, and construction projects such as building housing units for widows. Orphans, building a dispensary, etc.

Beneficiary groups… A space for capacity development

The project targets women living in rural areas who are members of poor families, mothers of orphans, women who are breadwinners for their families, and rural girls who hold academic degrees and are unemployed at the same time.

The project study indicates that working rural Tunisian women need a space that represents an incubator to meet their needs and develop their capabilities, and a center that meets their needs for economic empowerment, and provides educational and training opportunities that achieve qualitative outcomes. As well as develops their professional capabilities to become productive and active in their communities, and raises their awareness of the culture of work, self-reliance, and avoiding dependence.

The Village is a new space to accommodate rural women's activities

The project stems from a successful and pioneering work experience in attracting and employing women living in rural areas in the region, which is the experience of the Rural Women’s Complex in Ain Draham, which includes 500 women working in various craft and agricultural activities.

Furthermore, the complex is a structure for the social and solidarity economy that adopts the principle of participatory work among working women according to each specialty. It has been operating for 10 years, and has a distinguished and successful experience in training, rehabilitation, teamwork, and good management. The village represents a new space to accommodate the complex’s activities for women.

Enhancing Productive Activities

The project works to enhance and maintain existing productive activities, improve the quality of production, and expand the beneficiary groups and beneficiaries, thus providing job opportunities and supporting craft, commercial, and agricultural activities for rural women, to make them profitable and contribute to the development of the family and society.

It also provides job opportunities for the people of the region during and after construction and contributes to stimulating commercial activity.

Al-Mutawa opens Al-Lahib Village and inspects charitable projects in Tunisia

During a charitable trip full of activities, events, and inspection tours in Tunisia, the Deputy Director General of the Projects Sector, Abdul Rahman Al-Mutawa, inaugurated Al-Lahib Village project for development and craft projects in the Ain Draham region in northwestern Tunisia. The event was attended by the head of the Olive Branch Network of Development Associations, Hatem Al-Ayadi, and representatives of civil society.

The cost of the project, amounting to $590,000, is due to the proceeds of the endowment of the late Ali Saleh Al-Lahaib - may God have mercy on him. The visit came to inspect the project, verify that the completed works and activities conform to the approved study and the agreed-upon specifications, as well as give the signal for the launch of the project, and learn about the activities and works that the village embraces.

Furthermore, Al-Mutawa met with officials in the states of Kasserine and Sfax and the Ambassador of the State of Kuwait to Tunisia, Mansour Khaled Al-Omar, and inspected many projects and activities implemented with funding from the IICO, and was closely informed of the economic and social conditions in Tunisia through a tour in a number of Tunisian governorates and entities.

Al-Mutawa was informed of the humanitarian challenges faced by the state of Kasserine - the poorest state in Tunisia - such as high rates of poverty, early school dropout, unemployment, water shortages, …etc.

He also inspected some of the IICO projects, such as health centers, wells, homes for the poor, and families of orphans sponsored by the IICO, and some of the craft and agricultural activities that rural women working in the region work on and which are funded by the IICO within the projects of the microfinance program for needy families.

In addition, Al-Mutawa visited the headquarters of the partner entity, the Olive Branch Network, to learn about its institutional experience and the network’s governance, structuring, and administrative organization systems.