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Empowering Egyptian women by turning homes into factories

A personal tragedy led Gamal Talaat to start a project that boosts the economic power of women and keeps the Egyptian handicrafts industry alive.
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CAIRO — Gamal Talaat’s daughter suffered from lack of oxygen at birth, which caused severe disabilities in her hearing and body movement. While this brought much pain and shock to the family, it led Talaat, a former army officer, to launch a project to help thousands of women around Egypt.

Talaat’s initiative, called el-Masryeen Awla (Egyptians First), started in 2006 in public parks where he taught women — with or without disabilities — to earn a living through handicrafts. Since 2014, the project has continued in training centers in Cairo and in Giza, which have 200 trainers and 400 trainees.

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