Kuchinate

June2020

Kuchinate (crochet in Tigrinya) is a collective of African asylum-seeking women living in Tel Aviv. Kuchinate is composed of over 260 women who design and create crochet products for the home, such as baskets, poufs, and rugs. They also host crochet lessons, meals, and traditional Eritrean coffee ceremonies at their beautiful studio in south Tel Aviv.

 

Kuchinate is a socio-psychological project that allows the women to earn money and to cope with the harsh realities of their lives, through creation rooted in African culture. Each of the women receives a fair salary for their work as part of the collective, as well as social services.

Since its establishment in 2011, Kuchinate has changed the lives of tens of women, most of them mothers for whom the collective serves as their sole form of income.

 

The Kuchinate collective began with the initiative of Diddy Mymin-Kahn, a clinical psychologist that studied the effect of rape and sexual assault on Eritrean asylum-seeking women. She was joined by Aziza Kidane, a nun from Eritrea and a nurse by training that in 2012 was honored by the US Department of State for her efforts to combat human trafficking