Hallo Wereld • Mina El Kadiri

Mina is the founder of the Escamp Foundation for Women and the driving force behind the Sterrenhoek Community Room and the Zigzag Sewing Workshop. We meet her at the Sterrenhoek Community Room. The place where she works for women from the neighborhood and where she comes up with projects to make these women more independent and the environment more sustainable.

Mina: 'I believe that every woman has something in her that she can use to help not only herself, but also her environment. Especially in vulnerable neighborhoods, where opportunities are often unequally distributed, I want to offer women perspective. I do this through the Escamp for Women Foundation, the Sterrenhoek Neighborhood Room and our social sewing workshop Zigzag.'

Making things more sustainable together

She continues: 'I try to combine social impact with sustainability. Sustainability starts with awareness. In the neighbourhood, people literally asked themselves: 'What is sustainability?' So we show it, we do it together, and we make sure it is accessible. For example, we provided 700 houses with curtains in three months. Our women sew cotton napkins for companies instead of paper ones, and we have made bags with built-in solar panels, so you can charge your phone or laptop with sunlight.'

Become independent

The women who do this are often women with a migration background – Saudi, Turkish, Moroccan. Many of them were trained as seamstresses in their country of origin, but they can no longer practice that profession here. Mina: 'Nobody in the neighbourhood seems to be able to sew anymore, while these women have so much knowledge. We give them a place to use those skills again, to grow, to become independent.' 'We also have a dryer project in Buurtkamer Sterrenhoek. Many people don't have the space or money for a dryer. We have three of them – good for eighteen households at the same time. That means the heating doesn't have to be on as much, and that's how we make things more sustainable together. Sometimes I buy ten kilos of washing powder myself, put it in glass jars that you can use for seven washes. When you return the jar, we refill it. Small, practical, but it helps.'

"Don't give up. Build something. And do it together."

Mina El Kadiri

A path of one's own

At the same time, the women feel connected. They laugh and cry together, eat together, and almost never call in sick. For many of them, the network they build here is the beginning of independence. We have taken women off benefits, seen them find their own path. Some already dream of their own business. And that is exactly why we do this.

Everything will be fine

When we ask Mina about her message for others, she thinks for a moment and says firmly: 'Believe in phases. They pass. Poverty too. I always say: Everything will be fine. Seven years ago I was still canvassing, now I'm standing here with hundreds of women around me. My child is also doing well, with his own company and his driver's license. Don't give up. Build something. And do it together.'