Moroccan Buttons of Sefrou

How do you make a button?  The loop-de-loop kind of intricate things that march down a Moroccan djellaba by the dozens like a proud brigade?  

Ask any of the twelve Ibu allies who traveled to the city of buttons to learn how.  Sefrou, Morocco is where women know how to start with a tiny piece of paper and needle and whip up a chic little button, no problem; but teaching an American crew was another story altogether!  

It wasn't long ago that women in Sefrou got pennies for their buttons, sold to middle men who then traveled the country to sell the necessary buttons to tailors.  A savvy woman came along in the form of Amina Yabis and knew they could do better.

Amina formed a cooperative of women and cut out the middle man, selling the buttons directly. Soon after, I met Amina, and asked, well, if you can make the buttons, can you make the Moroccan jackets where the buttons live?

But, of course! is her answer to any challenge. The chic jackets became an Ibu success story.  And the women in Sefrou became a success story of their own.  WeAreIbu! sent funds to help grow this work; then visited the women who are daily unfastening what has fettered their world.

Buttons open and close more than jackets.  They  open doors for women.  They  open  lives.  And best of all, they open us to one another.  

All the Best,
Susan Hull Walker