We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Janette Habashi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Habashi below.

Hi Dr. Habashi, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The female unemployment rate in Palestine is a staggering 41%. As a result, women face various political, economic and social barriers in finding reliable, stable work. As a Palestinian, I was aware of this bleak local reality, which led me to eventually found Darzah. In 2009, I was a co-chair for the international Reconceptualizing Early Childhood conference that was going to take place in Palestine. Some graduate students wanted to join me and I suggested to do something for the Palestinian community. Some friends in the West Bank asked me for music instruments and my students started fundraising. Each year, we fundraised to support the after school program in Jenin refugee comps.

The local Palestinian community appreciated our assistance, but a group of mothers reached out expressing their need and desire for a long term solution to their economic difficulties. As the local economy does not offer much economic opportunity for women, I knew the challenge of securing reliable jobs for these women. After much contemplation, I found the best solution would be creating jobs for local mothers. Thus, our non-profit organization, A Child’s Cup Full Association, was born.

Despite not having any background in business, I was committed to helping Palestinian women. With the support of the Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth at the University of Oklahoma, I took business classes. After that, I developed Zeki Learning, a brand that could utilize my background in educational psychology, my professional network, and the mothers’ desire to work. Zeki Learning is a children’s educational resource brand committed to creating high-quality learning materials for toddlers and preschool-age children that support cognitive development and language learning. However, as word began to circulate locally about Child’s Cup Full and the jobs being created, more and more women began approaching our organization in search of work. In order to help more women, CCF decided to form a second brand. Inspired by the prevalent knowledge of Palestinian traditional embroidery (known as Tatreez), we decided to create Darzah (which means “stitch” in Arabic), a brand which celebrates Palestinian heritage by creating handmade, tatreez-embroidered shoes, bags, accessories, and home decor.

Dr. Habashi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

It is partly due to my background as a social worker and the injustice you face as a Palestinian that led me to found Child’s Cup Full. The idea for the organization began in 2008, when I accompanied my students on a fundraising campaign benefiting grassroots education programs for refugee children in the West Bank. Although the community appreciated the financial support, a small group of mothers vocalized their desire for a more permanent source of income and reached out to me for direction. I understood that there was an overwhelming need for a more sustainable, long-term solution to the economic hardships that families in the West Bank commonly experience, as females do not have access to reliable or viable work. In 2015, unemployment rates for young women in the West Bank were as high as 63%. Together with my team, we identified that supplying economic opportunities to women in these communities could have far-reaching effects, as they would be better able to care for themselves, their children, and their families. From this realization and with an initial fundraising campaign of only $4,000, Child’s Cup Full was created in 2014. Today, our non-profit organization operates two brands, Darzah and Zeki, in Zababdeh, a village located in the northern West Bank.
Stemming from my background in educational psychology, we created Zeki Learning, working with low-income mothers from its artisan center in Zababdeh to create handmade, high-quality, multilingual learning materials for preschool age children. As word began to circulate in the surrounding areas about Child’s Cup Full’s work, an increasing number of women began reaching out to the organization in search of employment. This prompted us to consider additional jobs to be created. We realized that most of these women specialize in the ancient art form of “Tatreez,” or traditional Palestinian embroidery. Soon after, Darzah was founded in 2015.
Darzah, which means “stitch” in Arabic, works to empower women from Zababdeh and surrounding villages who practice Tatreez embroidery. For centuries, Tatreez has been passed down from generation to generation, embodying significant cultural symbolism in its traditional motifs. Now, as these women embroider for Darzah, they are stitching together a brighter future.
Darzah incorporates Tatreez embroidery into contemporary western designs, including a variety of handmade products that include shoes, bags, accessories, and home goods. With this diverse offering, Darzah’s reach extends past its in-house artisans to a larger community of local shoemakers and family-run leather manufacturers. With their commitment to Palestinian heritage and a mission to empower marginalized communities in the West Bank, Darzah stands as a prime example of the ways in which fashion can act as a catalyst for social change and cultural appreciation.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

If you have a business operating in Palestine, it takes a great deal of resilience to operate. Due to the political conditions in Palestine, it is common to experience shortage of raw materials due to various restrictions imposed. Similarly, transportation of raw materials and finished products can take longer than it would elsewhere because of various checkpoints. As a result, there is always this sense of uncertainty. It takes resilience and motivation to keep going when a considerable part of your daily business operations are not in your control. For example, it takes 7 days to make a Darzah shoe. But out of those 7 days, 3 days go into shipping our tatreez design from the North to the South of Palestine. Without the checkpoints, it wouldn’t take more than 5 to 7 hours. The additional time and coordination considerably increases the cost of production.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Together with the help of my graduate students at the University of Oklahoma, we raised $4,000 USD for the Jenin refugee camp. However, this was not enough to support our new operations. In the years to come, we launched various crowdfunding campaigns to provide training opportunities, create more jobs, and increase our impact. Currently, we are crowdfunding to create more jobs for women artisans and offer advanced training to enhance their skills that will help to propel the growth of our non-profit, mission-driven brands and provide living wages to Palestinian women for years to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.darzah.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darzahdesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darzahdesigns/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18675101/admin/
• Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC5PUqV4H1stvkLMhEvU_D7A