Al Faisalya seeks to revive palm fronds craft

Samar Yahya
Saudi Gazette 

JEDDAH — Al Faisalya Women Welfare Society at the Sleysla center held their first training program in the Kingdom to develop the palm fronds craft, funded by the National Commercial Bank's (NCB) productive families program. 

The three-week program kicked off last week, hosting more than 40 trainees from Jeddah, Al-Ahsa, Al-Madinah and other cities, in addition to participants from King Abdul Aziz University's weaving department in faculty of home economics. The program aims to qualify specialized trainers on palm fronds craft and to transfer their experience to other centers and trainees in the kingdom.

“The idea was there for over six years ago. We tried to communicate with industrial departments in Malaysia, however the process took too long and was not accomplished. We contacted Khadija Yong who is an expert in the craft and has her own business for a long time and here we are having the program on ground, said director of Al Faisalya Society Fawzia Al-Tassan. Yong heads the three-member trainers team who came from Malaysia to implement the program.

She said: “I work in the field for 26 years. This is the first program that I have implemented in Saudi Arabia. We are hopeful about the program and we can see that trainees are gaining more skills everyday.” 

The SR 436.530-value-program’s objective is to revive the traditional craft, mainly done by old generations, and to give the new generation the chance to develop a craft that might vanish if not developed by them and come up with modern colored products.

Saudi Arabia owns over 23 million palms and comes second after UAE. Matarah Al Zahrai, one of the trainees, is keen on learning and wishes to develop modern products. Another trainee Seham is also very enthusiastic about the program.