Authentic Red Sea music filled the air at the Grand Egyptian Museum, celebrating the live heritage of Egypt through the Bagaweet creative economy project.
Bagaweet Red Sea Craft is a local Egyptian brand that aims to transform heritage into wearable and decorative products made in traditional Egyptian handmade techniques of sewing, embroidery, khayamiya, and printing, according to the “
The result was a stunning collection of handmade clothing lines inspired by the Red Sea culture and motifs.
The project is a collaboration between AlexBank, Drosos Foundation, Thaat School of Crafts social enterprise, and the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity to empower disadvantaged women in the Red Sea remote area, enabling them to manifest their traditional handmade techniques of embroidery into modern high-end clothing and home furnishing products.
“Bagaweet translates our language in the Red Sea dialect in Egypt,” explained Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine El-Qabbaj in the launch of the Bagaweet clothing and home wear line.
The three-phase project kicked off some six years ago when the Canadian embassy and ILO selected Ebda3 Men Masr initiative by AlexBank to implement the sustainability plan of the final phase of the Red Sea Crafts project, explained Laila Hosney, head of CSR and Sustainable Development Office at AlexBank.
She added that they managed to take it further through the support of the Drosos Foundation, which manifested into the current Bagaweet project.
The first phase of the project targeted 81 women. The second one aims to train 200 women. The project is also a social media platform that would spread the Red Sea culture of Egypt worldwide.
The items sold already have a QR code that tells the story of the Bagaweet project once scanned.
