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ABOUT THE ANOU COOPERATIVE
The Anou Cooperative is an award winning collective of over 600 artisans from cooperatives, associations, and workshops across Morocco. The Anou Cooperative is owned and managed by Morocco's artisan community and is open to all authentic artisans committed to quality and transparency.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
Fair Trade has existed for decades but Moroccan artisans are fewer and poorer than ever. This is because real change in the artisan sector doesn't happen by paying artisans a little extra money. For craft in Morocco to flourish, artisans need wealth, real skills, and most importantly, real power.
MIDDLEMAN MODEL
Products beautifully displayed in Marrakech or Instagram only net artisans less than 4% of what you pay. Oftentimes, this doesn't even cover the cost of the material of of the product.
FAIR TRADE MODEL
Fair trade pays a little better, but not enough to create meaningful sector wide change. The 80% not only represents 80% in lost income, but the real skills in running businesses artisans are never an opportunity to learn.
ARTISAN OWNED MODEL
Through Anou, artisans earn what fair-trade organizations traditionally make. Most important, the 20% is all recycled back into the artisan community through training or employment and creating collective power to change the future of craft.
Mustapha is both a metalsmith of Association Nahda and an Anou artisan leader specializing in operations. Right, Mustapha facilitates a meeting with Cooperative Tadighoust to help them improve their internal bylaws.
MEET THE ARTISAN TEAM
The Anou Cooperative selects the most motivated, brightest artisans across Morocco to help run the operations of the cooperative. This ensures that artisans have access to gaining skills mostly reserved for middlemen and foreigners. Learn more.
FATIMA BRAHIMI
President & Founder of Association Afous Gafous
Weaver
Anou Artisan Leader Operations Specialists
MUSTAPHA CHAOUAI
President & Founder of Association Nahda
Metalsmith
Anou Artisan Leader Operations Specialists
BRAHIM EL MANSOURI
President & Founder of Association Ighrem
Wood Carver
Anou Artisan Leader Wool Specialist
HALIMA AMAMI
President & Founder of Cooperative Zaouia
Weaver
Anou Artisan Leader Dye Specialist
RACHIDA OUSBIGH
President & Founder of Cooperative Tiglmamin
Weaver
Anou Artisan Leader Operations Specialist
FATIMA ANASIRI
Member of Association Afous Gafous
Weaver
Anou Artisan Leader Store Specialist
KENZA OULGHADA
President & Founder of Cooperative Tithrite
Weaver
Anou Artisan Leader Operations Specialist
RABHA AKKAOUI
President & Founder of Cooperative Talassine
Weaver
Anou Artisan Leader Store Specialist
As an artisan leaders Fatima Naciri supports groups like Cooperative Timzounine on colors and development of a new rugs. Fatima is an weaver of Association Afous G Afous and specialist in Anou dye work.
OUR PROCESS
Anou uses technology to reduce the complexity of global commerce so that artisans can easily connect with an individual customer in upstate New York, or a purchasing manager from West Elm. Anou is automating traditional middlemen work and ensuring the resulting wealth stays in artisan hands.
All artisans who make the product they sell are welcome to join Anou provided they agree to Anou's transparency requirements and are motivated. When an artisan expresses an interest to join, an Anou artisan leader visits the artisans workshop and verifies that the artisan makes what they sell. After the initial screening, the artisan undergoes a two day training which includes setting up their profile, an introductory training into pricing, photography and other basics of selling online.
ADDING PRODUCTS
For every artisan that joins the community, Anou creates a customized tool that enables to post product to Anou and create comprehensive product pages -- all with clicks on a language free interface demonstrated on the right.
All orders ship directly from the artisan that made the product. The means your shipment can come from the coast of the atlantic, snow capped peaks of the Atlas, or the deserts of the Anti-Atlas. Despite the distance and geographic challenges, shipments are insured so you can simply just enjoy the journey.
QUALITY GUARANTEE
Artisans ship your orders to Anou's artisan run store, where artisan leaders inspect every shipment to make sure it meets our standards. Artisan leaders use a proprietary app that enables them to record the results of Anou's six point quality control process and inform the customer.
Kenza is a weaver and the president of Association Tithrite. Kenza has flown all around the world to speak about Anou and the change the artisan community is seeking to create.