The association Friends of Tabelot is a non-profit association whose aim is to commercialise the production of Touareg jewellery through a Nigerian cooperative and to boost economic development of the Touareg community in Niger. The idea is very simple. We started by selling jewellery in France and Spain in order to expand our markets. Profits have enabled us to form an association, the GEC Tabelot, and to structure the production of the jewellery.
The project was started in 2005, and each year we rely on increasing our sales volume as this allows new artisan families to join the cooperative. So far, we have made it possible for 100 artisan families to live in a dignified manner from their work. We have established rules of production in order to respect the environment and to help with the economic development of the Touareg community in the Aïr region.
We have recently approached Prométour Educational Tours to raise awareness about our project in schools.
This does not by any means equate to charity.
The idea is to help one of the Touaregs communities in Niger to sustain and develop a traditional economical activity.
