Khadijah benefiting from ActionAid project in Hebron‘s H2 area. (Photo courtesy of ActionAid Palestine)
HEBRON, Thursday, May 7, 2020 (WAFA) -Through project "Valiance ‘Basala’-Empowering women in H2", the Israeli occupied part of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, funded by Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade(DFAT), ActionAid Palestine(AAP) supported 22 Palestinian economic enterprises, including income generating agricultural and commercial enterprises, aiming to economically strengthen the resilience of women and their families and promote their presence in their local communities.
An AAP press release said those enterprises will be a source of income that will enable women to provide their families under the deterioration of economic conditions of their families and exacerbation of their suffering due to full lockdown resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19 and loss of livelihoods.
In addition, this area permanently suffers from protection threats including Israeli settlers‘ violence and existence of Israeli military checkpoints.
Supporting those enterprises aims to achieve the strategic goals of Valiance‘s project of improving women‘s status in H2 through economic empowerment and collective action and enhance their access to economic resources, said the press release.
In addition, their active agency will be built to address the structural causes of discrimination and violence against them through their collective work to analyze the social, economic, and political context that affects all aspects of life. Women will identify all skills and experiences they need to overcome difficult situations and create positive change for women within their families and communities.
AAP supported those start-ups by providing 22 women with agricultural items and equipment needed for planting vegetables and livestock farming and other commercial items to establish their own businesses. Those items were delivered to women under state of full lockdown with close cooperation with Hebron Governorate.
Valiance‘s project contributes in establishing economic and productive enterprises targeting young entrepreneurs and low- income marginalized women, said the press release. Those women were trained by AAP on how to manage start-ups through the use of modern techniques of management and marketing. Their competitive capacities in markets were enhanced to facilitate their control over and access to different resources of start-ups and gender sensitive productive assets in the local markets.
Khadijah is a young woman living in H2 and benefiting from project. She is now managing her household saying: "I dream that I can develop my project and produce an organic healthy product as an alternative to unhealthy food invading the market. I also dream that I contribute in sustainable development and later in decreasing in unemployment rate. This enterprise helps me in mitigating the economic burden which continues to be a source of a great concern for all under the continuous state of lockdown. As a result, working in this enterprise will decrease tension and mitigate the psychological impact of the pandemic and current stresses as well as it will help me in utilizing my time and energy properly."
ActionAid is a global federation working for social justice and gender equality and eradicate poverty. ActionAid works worldwide to empower people living in poverty and exclusion with focus on women‘s rights. It started its work in Palestine in 2007.
M.K.
