Seamstress Lucres Soso: I never imagined that the leftover fabrics we were throwing away could be useful, but I realized that the waste fabrics are worth gold if they are recycled.
Video duration 01 minutes 54 seconds
Every morning, 28-year-old Amaka Yusoufou wanders through the sewing workshops in the Wida region, southern Benin (West Africa), and collects in a large box the remnants of the fabric used by tailors to make clothes. When she finishes her tour, the deaf and mute young woman joins the Color Indigo operator.
This project employs about 30 people, most of them women, including 10 people with disabilities, who transform the textile waste into decorative pieces (bedclothes, bedspreads, covers) that are purchased by local customers and also exported abroad.
“We used to throw pieces of cloth in the past, which clog our gutters,” said seamstress Lucres Soso. “But a while ago, we started collecting leftover fabrics for people to take and make pieces from.”
“I never imagined that textile waste could be useful. I was amazed at first, but then I realized that textile waste is worth gold if it is recycled.”
In the Color Indigo workshop, Anne-Marie Avotto leaves her wheelchair at the bottom of a pile of scraps and, seated on a wooden chair, arranges the washed and grouped pieces by color.
Throughout the day, piles of fabric disappear and are then transformed into various types of pieces, such as tablecloths, rugs, etc., which cost between 7 and 40 euros.
Among the clients of “Color Indigo” is Marcel Adjanohon, who runs a number of hotels in Weidah, a coastal tourist destination located about 40 kilometers from the economic capital Cotonou.
“These pieces mean a lot to me, so I use them to decorate my hotel,” says the businessman. “The workshops do great work that can be found in major brands in Cotonou, as well as in Europe and the United States.”
Project manager Nadia Adanleh considers that working with people with disabilities does not affect the company’s productivity, “the opposite of what some think,” she told AFP.
This work has changed the lives of female workers and workers with disabilities, most of whom move using crutches or wheelchairs.
Thanks to her work, Anne-Marie Avto “finally meets my needs”, and explains that she was previously unable to “remove anything”.
She additionally notes that “the perception of society (of her) has changed dramatically” since she began leaving her home every morning to go to work. “Now I feel appreciated,” she says.