ABOUT US

Starting with only 5 women in the late nineties, FanSina grew to work today with 460 Bedouin women from 4 tribes across the valleys of the holy town of St. Katherine, South Sinai.

They have received support form the European Union and the South Sinai Regional Development Programme (SSRDP) in terms of product development, and quality assurance raising all standards to international quality.

THE STORY

FanSina originally started as a development initiative, which was a component of a multi-million Euro bilateral aid program between the European Union (EU) and the Government of Egypt for setting up nature protectorates in South Sinai.  One of these protectorates became the St. Katherine Protectorate after the establishment of the Protectorate in St. Katherine in 1996.  The initiative was at first referred to as “Craft and Income Generation Project of the Bedouin Support Program” and started in 1997 with the assistance of two anthropology consultants.  Initially, the premise was to preserve the local Bedouin handicrafts and the products were more put on display than sold. 

By the year 2000, a local consultant was invited to contribute his expertise and he changed the premise from just preservation, to marketing of the products by using a variety of material and colors. 

Ms. Selema Gabaly, a Bedouin from St. Katherine and who was working as a secretary in the Protectorate at the time, was assisting the consultants from the start.  She became more involved in the project and worked closely with the local consultant, who also was selling the products in Cairo.  Ms. Selema has the connection with the Bedouin females who produce the products and she is the first Bedouin to obtain a secondary school certificate in St. Katherine.  As the operation started to pick up, four Bedouin women and a Bedouin man were selected to run the operation, with Ms. Selema as the leader. 

The operation was based on three pillars which they all agreed on:  1. social aspect targeting women with no alternative sources of income, 2. cultural aspect focusing on preserving tradition and local handicrafts, teaching the younger generation the trade and 3. economic aspect maintaining fair trade principles while encouraging Bedouin females to create marketable products. 

By July 2002, it was decided to register the operation as a limited liability company, named FanSina (meaning the art of Sinai), with 15 Bedouin partners, of which 4 are managing partners.  Seed capital of L.E. 15,000 – approximately EUR 2,070 – was provided by the EU.  Special clauses were stipulated in each partner’s contract indicating that profits would be reimbursed back into the company, that shares are transferable and not sold, and that the company cannot be sold.

Today, FanSina has a total of 350 Bedouin women producers, and provides an average monthly income of L.E. 60 to L.E. 150 (EUR 8.3 to EUR 21) to 350 women.  Some women can make as much as L.E. 1,000 per month (EUR 138), and sales have approximately quadrupled in five years.