Lakia

Today the women of Lakia have their own pattern: the four women founders are at the center, while the four sheiks of their community are stitched on the outer corners.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

In this picture they meet Naama Elsana (wearing the head covering), a co-founder of the Association for the Improvement of Women's Status, Lakia.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

Suffering from high rates of poverty, and abuse: "The women in Lakia no longer go to the well to collect water, but I tell them that the well is inside us," says Naama Elsana, the co-founder of an organization to improve the status of Israeli Bedouin women, to the group.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

Today, the locked well at the center of Lakia is a symbol of how these women feel, locked out of their evolving culture.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

Today the women of Lakia, she explains, have created their own motif, their own narrative that tells stories through embroidery.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

Elsana and her three Israeli-Bedouin partners envisioned a better life for themselves and founded the Association for the Improvement of Women's Status, Lakia in 1992.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

Support the women of Lakia and visit: www. desert-embroidery.org

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

There used to be a well in the Bedouin village of Lakia, where women would meet to gossip, share wisdom and collect water.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

There used to be a well in the Bedouin village of Lakia, where women would meet to gossip, share wisdom and collect water.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009

There used to be a well in the Bedouin village of Lakia, where women would meet to gossip, share wisdom and collect water.

Karin Kloosterman: Project Interchange Highlights Bedouin-Style Fair Trade in Lakia, Israel 2009