Refugees create their own future

This article appeared in the Spring 2010 edition of The Star in the East

The room below All Saints’ Cathedral is cramped and untidy, but the walls are lined with vivid textiles, their freshly printed patterns showing striking reinterpretations of traditional African designs. This is the Tukul Crafts workshop, a small business under the wing of Refuge Egypt that enables displaced Sudanese people to earn an independent living in a city far from their home.

Refuge Egypt supports up to 27,000 refugees, who arrive in Cairo having fled war, persecution or disaster in their homelands. Egypt has no refugee camps and so the people must fend for themselves. Most of the refugees are from Sudan, and because of the open border between the two countries, they are ineligible to apply for official refugee status. Refuge Egypt provides a welcoming place where they can receive emergency food and clothing, gain access to healthcare and benefit from advice about finding employment.

The refugees’ emotional and spiritual welfare is important too, and Refuge Egypt offers church services and bible study in their own language. There are also social events and a café where people can meet up and relax.

Refuge Egypt does not encourage people to live on handouts forever, but to become self-sufficient. Its motto is:

Teach people the importance of taking responsibility for their lives, and you will have empowered them to live again.

A big part of this means offering education and training that will give them the best chance of getting a job. Within Cairo, however, employment opportunities for refugees are scarce, and the only jobs left involve unskilled manual labour. For those talented at crafts, Tukul provides an alternative – the ability to generate income through creative skill.

‘Tukul’ means ‘the small hut’. In Sudanese culture, the tukul is the focal point of home life, and the place where Sudanese people traditionally produce their crafts. Tukul Crafts was set up in 1988 by a group of Sudanese refugees keen to use their skills to generate an income. They started with beadwork and stencil-printed T-shirts. Later, basket weaving was introduced, and many people developed beautiful basketry skills that are still an important part of Tukul’s output today.

The workshop has seven permanent members of staff, but other refugees creating items at home are given advice about design and colour, and support with finding sales outlets.

A substantial proportion of Tukul products are marketed in and around Cairo. Two shops in the city sell merchandise throughout the year, and the products are very popular at local bazaars. Going to the bazaar, however, can be a challenge. The cost of renting a booth and transporting the goods means that the Tukul employees cannot go as often as they would like. Rising fabric costs also contribute to the difficulty of balancing expenditure with income.

In spite of the struggles, Tukul Crafts is self-sufficient and would eventually like to expand enough to reach more overseas markets. For now, their website is the place to find their range of beautiful products and designs: www.tukulcrafts.org

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