Hand painted arabesque soup bowls

Bahaa Zamolot, 22 years old, has been working with Atfaluna as a ceramics technician for 4 years.

Zatoun water pot, one of Atfaluna's popular hand-painted Zatoun ceramics collection.

Wooden footstool with embroidered top

Modern embroidered pillows

Kawkab Al Qudsi, 40 years old, embroidery and colour-coordination specialist.

Many would say that Atfaluna Crafts is unique - not only in what it produces - but in what it is. A visitor once wrote: “Atfaluna Crafts is a virtual work of love: love of one’s fellow man and love of country - its people, its history, its beauty.”

To me, Atfaluna Crafts is all of the above and yet more. But for the 300 or more deaf and marginalized women and men working as craftspersons in on-site workshops or as at-home workers, Atfaluna Crafts represents an economic lifeline, embodies will over adversity, and is a symbol of empowerment of some of society’s most vulnerable people. With 68 deaf persons working in the Atfaluna Crafts on-site workshops, it is also a community of sorts where everyone “speaks” sign language, and where it really doesn’t matter if you never went to school, or if you cannot read, write, or do math, you can still succeed.

Atfaluna Crafts initially started as a vocational training program for deaf adults, the majority of whom never had the opportunity for formal education. Trainees learned basic woodworking, sewing, traditional embroidery, pottery-making, and rug- and fabric- weaving. Although most lacked even the most rudimentary literacy skills, they amazed everyone by acquiring skills at an astounding rate, proving to us that deaf people had a much better “eye” for both finishing and composition. Amongst the first trainees were “undiscovered” deaf artists who enchanted us with their paintings-on-wood of olive groves, Bedouin encampments, and ladies baking bread. The “deaf” eye for colour also resulted in a shift from traditional colours and designs in rugs and embroidery to innovative and exciting colour combinations, always with a suggestion of Palestinian culture and tradition. It was time, we felt, to move beyond vocational training and into a program that could offer both training as well as an opportunity for deaf persons to produce and market their beautiful crafts. Thus, Atfaluna Crafts was created.

Visiting artists and designers have said that the Atfaluna Crafts production centre is the designer’s haven, for whatever medium to be incorporated into design is available in the seven workshops. Many Atfaluna Crafts products often incorporate two, three, or more mediums into their designs. Not only does this make for interesting products, but it also helps to create jobs.

A tour of the Atfaluna Crafts production department might start with a quick look into the carpentry where 20 young deaf men are busy tracing and cutting out Arabesque pieces for tables and cabinets, applying ceramic tiles to mirrors, or upholstering footstools with hand-embroidered fabrics. A young man who is deaf and blind sits calmly in a corner sanding a wooden trinket box to velvety perfection. The supervisor himself is deaf, ever-vigilant - his eyes everywhere at once - as he constantly reinforces the proper usage of equipment and application of safety measures. Only a deaf carpenter could truly be aware of the dangers imposed by a “silent” carpentry. The embroidery and sewing department finds Sajada, deaf from birth, distributing cross-stitch embroidery assignments to a young deaf woman. Diagnosed by doctors as deaf and a “slow learner,” Nasra never went to school and was left at home to do menial chores for her large family. No one at home knew proper sign language; no one at home transferred information to Nasra about the world outside her two-room refugee-camp house. Under the gentle tutelage of Sajada, line by painstaking line, the frail, anxious 17-year-old began to learn the intricacies of traditional Palestinian cross-stitch. The experience has been empowering for Nasra who has gained self-esteem and newfound respect as the only family member to bring home a paycheck at the end of the month.

In the weaving room, a large skein of cotton threads in navy, red, yellow, and green hangs from a Majdalawi fabric loom. Every clatter and clack of the old loom creates yet another row of sturdy Majdalawi cloth, an age-old Palestinian fabric originally produced in the town of Majdal (now Ashkelon). Hossam, the fabric-weaving instructor, helps a deaf trainee to perfect her technique. How bizarre, I think, that Hossam should have this job, as his family are refugees who fled from Majdal in 1948. The tour continues to the painting-on-wood section where young deaf women are busy painting pink, green, and purple camels to be attached to key rings, one of Atfaluna Crafts bestsellers. Hedab, a gifted painter, places the finishing strokes on a hand-painted mirror embellished with intricate Arabesque design. Radwan, a deaf 20-year-old who lives in a Bedouin encampment just outside the city of Gaza, is painting a charming rural scene on the cover of a wooden trinket box. Next door in the pottery section, 12 young men and women design, mold, glaze, fire, and finish unique ceramics items, from lamps to salad bowls, a time-consuming process, but well worth the time invested. Atfaluna Crafts ceramics are all 100% hand-crafted and hand-painted - each item a little work of art.

The tour finishes with a visit to the Atfaluna Crafts Sales Shop where visitors can browse through an eclectic collection of home décor items that include hand-crafted ceramics, hand-woven Majdalawi cloth pillows, hand-woven carpets, Arabesque-embellished tables, hand-painted lamps, and ceramic-inlay tables and cabinets. Women’s accessories include fashionable hand-woven handbags and brightly embroidered business card cases, caftans, mobile phone cases, and much more. A large collection of greeting cards designed by Palestinian artists is available for every occasion.

If you’d prefer an armchair tour of Atfaluna Crafts, we’d be pleased to have you visit our website, www.atfaluna.net, where you can read about the Society’s work and do on-line shopping in the Atfaluna Crafts Boutique. In spite of the very difficult situation that exists in the Gaza Strip, Atfaluna can ensure shipment of goods anywhere in the world within three to five working days.

We are very grateful for the support of donors throughout the world who have helped us and who continue to help us to develop Atfaluna Crafts into a professional crafts business. Times are tough, however, in the Gaza Strip. We hope that our good friends and supporters will continue to support Atfaluna Crafts through on-line purchases, which provide so many marginalized women and men with desperately needed income with which to buy food, medicines, and clothing for their large families.