Fadwa Moussaif is the founder of Boucharouette Eco-Création (B.E.C), a company that started as a humble school project where students were tasked with coming up with a social enterprise.
Upon doing some research for their school project, Fadwa and her partner found that of the 12 villages they visited, at least 50% of the woman knew the art of Boucharouette rug making, but couldn’t turn it into a business of their own, in addition, more than 30,000 Moroccan women in rural areas master craftsmanship, but only 15 per cent exploit this small wealth as a source of income and financial independence. It was at this point that Fadwa came to the realisation that Boucharouette Eco-Création, could be far more than just a school project and decided to turn their school project into a business.
In order to revive this art, they began a market study that clarified the weak points of the product vis-à-vis the customer. The Boucharouette was usually made with poor quality raw materials and lacked comfort and visual and the art from was failing to attract the attention of a majority of tourists that visited Morocco. In addition intermediaries purchase the product of the creators at very low prices and add very high margins with unstable prices.
In the interest of remedying all this, Fadwa began to look for a source of good quality raw materials. This led them to discover that the textile cutting industries rejects more than 205 000 tonnes annually and that only 8% is recycled and the rest is processed in an uncontrolled way! This was the opportunity they had been looking for.
Boucharouette Eco-Création is a company specialising in the manufacture and marketing of hand-woven and hand-knotted carpets from falls in textile industries and their transformation into chiffon, cushions, boards and bags. The designers have a very good command of the work technique, so the product is very high quality.
They offer customers a functional, decorative product that is both comfortable and luxurious and the designs are easy to maintain. The customer can choose from a variety of customisable features such as, colours and dimensions. They also offer high quality services with home delivery and facilitate payment.Their products are sold via social media networks, a website, exhibitions and concept stores.
The goal for B.E.C is twofold: the first is to revive the art of Boucherouite rug making with quality fabric (instead of old t-shirts) and the second is to empower local woman who are dependent on their husbands for income through this art form.
The end goal is to have a chain of boutiques nationwide with at least 50 local women making at least 300m2 of product/month!
