In Ouidah, a small coastal town of Southern Benin, people living with disabilities have been employed with an initiative that teaches them to recycle fabric scraps to beautiful artifacts sold to museums and hotels and exported to foreign countries.
The activities of these workers, who use crutches or wheelchairs at the “Couleur Indigo” has made significant impact in their lives as they can now earn and fend for themselves.
Nadia Adanle, Founder of the initiative in an interview reported via ,African News on the brain and impact of the Couleur Indigo idea, “[i]f I had to give keywords to describe this work, the first would be ‘wow.'”
“Every time someone comes in, it’s ‘wow’. Secondly, there is the fact that this work is done by people with disabilities. The question I am asked is ‘how did you come up with the idea of making them work?.'” It was normal to me with the condition that the person could not be moving all the time. That was obvious.”
Amaké Yessoufou, one of the workers at the Couleur Indigo revealed that every morning, she visits sewing shops with a large cardboard box, to collect these fabric scraps that tailors had used in making clothes.
Chantal Gbenagnon, one of the workers at the Couleur Indigo expressed her delight with making better products from the fabric scraps.
“My husband tells me every time that my knowledge in the field increases day by day and he is amazed at the variety of objects made from these fabric scraps. Only those who know can testify how true this is,” said Gbenagnon.
Benin Tourism Developer Marcel Adjanohoun praised the initiative for changing the lives of people living with disabilities.
“What they are doing is perfectly suited to their health issues and the result is that they create beautiful objects, marketable objects that can be used quickly and are found in important chains such as at the MGA residence (hotel in Ouidah) or in other places, in Cotonou, in Europe, in the United States,” he said.
