Our social economy catering project offers a first work experience to Syrian refugee women, drawing on their culinary talents and desire to share their country's culture and history. Together we build a bridges between our cultures.
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Our mission
By offering a first work experience to Syrian refugee women, we help them to become active, autonomous members of our society.
Our Story
Syrian women face the same difficult social, cultural, and economic obstacles that every refugee confronts upon arrival in Canada. Les Filles Fattoush gives these newly arrived women a significant opportunity to integrate into Quebec society: a job that puts their culinary talents to use, at the same time allowing them to earn a living and build a social network.
This job is not only a first step towards reestablishing their dignity, but it also creates exchanges, both between these women and with their clients. The result is mutually beneficial: everyone gives and everyone receives.
In the global diaspora, refugee communities risk losing their cultural heritage. Les Filles Fattoush addresses this issue constructively: with a collective work effort that creates relationships, builds self-esteem, and profits women, their families, and the community.
New opportunities are discovered by word of mouth, but also by meetings and conversations between Syrian women and Canadians: this helps them to showcase their skills besides those in the kitchen. Among the first Filles Fattoush employees, we have fitness instructors, lawyers, journalists -- women from diverse, professional backgrounds. This unique workplace gives women a chance to integrate into life in a new society.
There is no universal solution. Social and economic obstacles will always be present, but Les Filles Fattoush is a creative, innovative project that helps to overcome these obstacles.
Adelle Tarzibachi
co-founder
Originally from Aleppo, a city in north-western Syria, Adelle Tarzibachi arrived in Quebec in 2003. Guided by the desire to maintain the relationship to the new Canadian's country of origin, this entrepreneur created the company ADECO IMPORT, a business specialized in importing artisanal Syrian products created by artisans in Damascus and Aleppo. ADECO IMPORT is a solidarity project that strives to contribute to the preservation and production of one of the facets of Aleppo's invaluable cultural heritage: soaps. The objective is to build Aleppo's economic prosperity -- which has been completely destroyed by the civil war -- and to support its commerce by creating humane jobs and sources of revenue for twenty families living in Aleppo and its surrounding region. Everything is manufactured in Aleppo: not only the soaps, but also all of the packaging. "We have a workshop that employs 25 people. We work with Aleppine master soapmakers," says Adelle Tarzibachi, the business's founder. It is Adelle's limitless determination to make a difference in Syrian peoples' lives.
Geneviève Comeau
General Manager
After graduating from UQAM with a certificate in cultural research and animation and a certificate in communications and cultural production, Geneviève has specialised in event planning. She started working for Bob Agency in 2009, where she honed her skills in management and partnership development. Creative, curious, and resourceful, Geneviève strives for innovation and is passionnate about developing the social economy, which she sees as the economic system of the future. She can rely on a vast network of contacts to help her develop the projects she most believes in, but it is her own determination to make a difference in her community that is most valuable.
Josette Gauthier
co-founder
Josette Gauthier directs the Triplex Films production company, which specialises in producing documentaries about important social themes. Films include Human Nature, an acclaimed four hour miniseries about human reactions; Journalists in Iraq, a painful story (directed by the famous Iranian filmmaker Maziar Bahari) about Al-Quida's abductions of journalists stationed in Iraq during the war; Stolen Babies, Stolen Lives, which tells the heartbreaking story of infants stolen in Argentina during the dirty war; GSP: l'ADN d'un champion, a brilliant feature-length documentary about the UFC world champion Georges St-Pierre, which showed in Canadian theatres in 2014. More recently, the documentary on the great Italian chef Massimo Bottura's social initiative, Theatre of Life (2016 -- coproduced with the National Film Board of Canada) recieved many prestigious prizes around the world.
Marie Létourneau
Publicist
Marie Létourneau has worked in public relations for more than 10 years, and has amassed significant experience in communications. Previously, she was the director of public relations for the Socitété des arts technologiques [SAT] and director of communications of the production agency MASSIVart. Her career in communications led her to become a specialist in media for lifestyle, design, visual arts, gastronomy, business, and hospitality. Over the years, Marie has produced hundreds of campaigns for clients.
It is with the sincerity and generosity that characterize them that they share here their history, their vision of the future and some of their family recipes. Stories filled with resilience and hope, but above all, with great humanity.