Hi, there.We're Baddara
Meet the designer ABEER GADAWI
Born and educated in the New Valley Oases, an Egyptian region rich in scenic landscapes – palm trees and nature – where she learned at the hands of her grandmothers the art nature-inspired embroidery.
With growing interest in handicrafts and heritage, Abeer moved to Cairo where she obtained a scholarship to study at the Plaza Spinelli Institute in Florence, Italy, where she specialized in tourist handicrafts.
Upon her return to Egypt, she developed traditional handmade products turning them into modern every day utilities that fit the needs of daily life, while creating channels of social and economic empowerment to female handicrafts in several regions.
Abeer worked as a trainer specializing in developing environmentally-friendly handmade products from palm residues, especially palm wicker products sourced from many regions in Egypt including the New Valley, Dahshour, and Nubia.
Her skills coupled with the collaboration of several development partners such as the National Council for Women and the Industrial Modernization Center earned her numerous awards throughout her career.
As she accumulated experiences, Abeer realized that her mission was to bring together all the women she trained under one roof. There she established Baddara, which in the Siwa language means a whisk basket, and Baddara – like many others – has a unique story that is worth knowing about.
About BADDARA
Abeer Gedawi took the first steps in establishing this entrepreneurial venture to realize her goal of bring-ing together skilled female artisans she has trained over the years, thus founding Baddara.
She founded Baddara in 2017, through which Abeer and her team of skilled female artisans used agricul-tural waste from wicker, lemon palm, halfa plants and banana leaf waste as basic raw materials for modern products inspired by nature and heritage. The project was also consolidated with the aim of training women from the villages of Dahshour and revive the art of rural embroidery. With her project, Abeer was able to bring together Dahsour’s com-munity of skilled artisans to the heritage of the Egyp-tian Oases, through distinct pieces.
Abeer Gedawi created a new line of very distinct product created from palm tree and other natu-ral elements’ residues, with motifs inspired from the Egyptian countryside in Giza and the oases from the Western Desert.
To this day, Baddara’s activities have benefitted over 250 women from the New Valley, Dahshour, Old Cairo and Aswan. Furthermore, and through Baddara, Abeer is continuously working to develop her products and business models to cater to the increasing demand of her products on local and in-ternational markets, namely the GCC and Europe (where she strives to further expand).
Since the inception of Baddara, Abeer relied on her business model, the distinctive quality, diversity and product story, in addition to applying an adequate customer satisfaction policy as means for constant improvement and market adaptation.
This project, initiated by Abeer’s personal com-mitment to her beliefs and self-financing, has now evolved to stand among Ebda3 men Masr’s famous successful partnerships.
BADDARA’S WOMENHI,
FROM
THE NEW VALLEY AND DAHSHOURABOUT
Women empowerment is an essential chapter in Abeer’s story. In fact, not only has she risen from a very traditional rural environment to become an acclaimed entrepreneur with a pur-pose, she has also strived – in the process – to empower young and skilled female artisans who have become the engine behind her success.
Through their unique skills, women of the New Valley and Dahshour transformed nature-inspired motifs into a form of fine art. With the evolution of this philosophy since the inception of Badda-ra, these motifs became a signature of Abeer’s products, rendered even more valuable by the special handmade rural embroidery from the hands of Baddara’s beneficiaries.
Baddara further owes its success to the diversity of products, made available to the public with an increasing number of trained beneficiaries from the New Valley and Dahshour, who have combined their innate skills and capacity-building opportunities to unleash their distinctive cre-ativity through the art of embroidery, palm leaf products and natural leather.
Wit development and enhancement of artisanal skills, Baddara’s products quickly diversified, doubled in volume, and reached multiple markets, locally and internationally. As Baddara pur-sues these efforts, the influence of and on women keeps increasing, by continuously integrating new beneficiaries on the training scene.
With the accumulation of these efforts, Aeer Gedawi wishes to transform Baddara into the center of oasis and rural handicrafts in Egypt, and the source of skills and inspiration of this craft. These experience will account for women learning the origins and skills needed to design and produce handicrafts made from palm tree residues, as well as the art of rural embroidery, aspir-ing to become an example and success story of social and economic empowerment in Egypt, originating from rural areas such as Dahshour and the New Valley oases.