The Advocacy Project (AP) is a nonprofit that partners with various organizations worldwide in order to advocate for and aid marginalized and often oppressed communities. Specifically, AP works with community-based organizations to create lasting aid programs. Collateral Repair Project has partnered with The Advocacy Project to create Advocacy Quilts through the Hope Workshop.
Advocacy Quilts are an AP initiative that began in Bosnia in 2006 after the Srebrenica Massacre and was a way for women to make money, share their stories, and express their feelings in a therapeutic manner. Advocacy Quilts seek to preserve culture, develop new skills, and provide an outlet of expression. The women involved are encouraged to sell their handiwork and develop financial independence.
The Advocacy Project commissions embroidered fabric squares from Hope Workshop each year that are sent back to the United States to be sewn into a large quilt that is then showed around the country and sold.The women who participate in Hope Workshop are trained in embroidery and sewing techniques and design their own squares. The work is a way for their voices to be heard and a way to express their emotions.
Learn more about The Advocacy Project, Advocacy Quilts, or CRP’s Hope Workshop.
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Building Hope (Workshop) Together
Reem has been with Hope Workshop since the beginning. Though she lives far enough away that she has to take a taxi to get to CRP, she never misses a meeting.
Hope Workshop’s New Embroidery Program
On World Refugee Day last June, we raised $10,000 to expand our popular women’s craft collective, Hope Workshop. Since meeting our goal with your generous help, we’ve been able to add an embroidery program.
Raise Money for Hope Workshop This World Refugee Day
In honor of World Refugee Day today, June 20th, we are partnering with the Advocacy Project and Global Giving to raise money for the Women’s Hope Workshop.
Hope Workshop: Meet a Member – Fakhriaya
The Hope Workshop at CRP is a women’s craft cooperative that brings refugee women together to design and market hand-made crafts in local bazaars throughout Amman.
Hope Workshop – Meet a Member: Ikhlas
Over the summer, we collaborated with the Advocacy Project to have the women create beautiful embroidered squares that depict their lives, which were then put together to produce quilts for sale and exhibition in the United States.
Hope Workshop at CRP: Meet a Member – Soltana
Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring other women who were a part of the Hope Workshop this summer. Soltana, a member from our summer cooperative, shares her story.
Hope Workshop at CRP – Meet a Member: Wa’ad
Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring other women who were a part of the Hope Workshop this summer. Roa’a, a member from our summer cooperative, shares her story.
Inshallah: A Final Dispatch
“Inshallah. Probably the singular Arabic word I hear most on a daily basis. Meaning literally, ‘if God wills it,’ the word serves as both a filler and as a daily reminder of things that are out of our control.”
Refugees’ Stories Come Alive Through Embroidery
Over the course of the past two months, the women of the Hope Workshop have been working hard to produce beautiful embroidered squares detailing stories from their lives as refugees.
Memory and Art: Hope Workshop Members Document Past Experience through Embroidery
Today the Hope Workshop met to share designs and discuss next steps for their advocacy quilting project!