Souq Fann / Shiraka Program

Souq Fann is a Jordanian e-commerce platform that promotes and sells the work of the local producers in the MENA region. Souq Fann conducts as well offline activities, which mainly have the goals of helping the local talents to enhance their work in order for them to increase their sales. In that context, Souq Fann is receiving the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Amman through the Shiraka Programme. This collaboration aims to support Souq Fann to achieve its formulated and sustainable objectives.  The first quarter of the program (October, November, and December) was dedicated to the internal planning: - Creating a detailed action plan for each activity. - Evaluating Souq Fann internal resources in terms of manpower and equipment. - Establishing an internal strategy for Souq Fann team, including a hiring plan. - Scanning Souq Fann vendors' database and pre-selecting potential participants for the offline activities (training and mentorship sessions). - Prospecting potential places for Souq Fann corners and shop/creative space. The second quarter of the programme (January, February, and March) was dedicated to the beginning of the implementation of the activities: - Writing and releasing calls targeting the participants for the offline activities, in Amman and Maan: training and mentorship session- Selecting the participants for the training- Selecting the venues, in Amman and Maan, for the training- Selecting and hiring the trainers- Writing and releasing calls for mentors- Interviewing and pre-selecting mentors- Developing the exhibition concept The third quarter of the program (April, May, and June) had been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. The supposed conducted activities got cancelled/postponed due to the situation. Our team spent some time re-thinking the activities, and how the impact could be the same through different and online components. Our exchange training got cancelled, and our offline training sessions got turned into online courses. The offline mentorship sessions had been maintained as part of the activities but postponed till July 2020. In addition, our team decided to work with Amman and Zarqa governorates for this year instead of Amman and Maan because of potential difficulties to travel between governorates. Furthermore, we believe that conducting online sessions with Maan beneficiaries can be challenging and therefore we preferred to change the governorate. In other words, the team worked on the following components during the third quarter:- Re-thinking and modifying the plan with keeping in mind the main goal of the programme- Conducting a second outreaching campaign for the Amman mentorship sessions and a new campaign for the Zarqa mentorship sessions- Selecting the participants for the mentorship sessions - Preparing the mentorship sessions and TOT training for the mentors- Releasing calls and outreaching to potential trainers for online courses- Hiring the trainers for online courses and starting the curriculum development. During the last quarter (July, August, and September) one of the main activities conducted was the mentorship sessions for mentees of Amman and Zarqa governorates. The participants had the opportunity to receive tailored mentorship sessions over a 3-month period from professional designers in order to enhance their work and create a new line of products to be sold on Souq Fann, and therefore to increase their sales. The sessions for Amman mentees occurred every Saturday and the sessions for Zarqa mentees took place over the week. Afterwards, the Souq Fann team took professional pictures of the products, wrote the stories of the sellers along with descriptions for each product, and conducted a digital marketing campaign. Additionally, three online courses had been produced and released on For9a.com, aiming to build up the capacities and knowledge of people interested in the field of the creative industry and handicraft.