Towards a decent life for women in Gaza

Mustaqbali project entitled “Towards a decent life for women with self-reliance” was concluded. This project was funded by the Penny Appeal, under Taawon supervision and implemented by the Center for Women’s Affairs in Gaza. The project, which lasted for several months, targeted a group of widows who lost their husbands during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009.

The project provided training for widowed mothers and provided them with employment opportunities and support for small income-generating projects.

“After we received training on small projects, I started my own project, a place to rent ‘evening dresses,'” said one of the widows involved in a training course on managing small income-generating projects that targeted 25 widows.

“The aim of the training is for the women to develop skills in the management of microenterprises in order to create their own projects to improve their economic status in the community and improve their economic status,” said Reem Al Nairb, project coordinator at the center. “The training was followed by financial support [financial grant] for the top 5 project ideas to start with,” Neirib said.

The Center also carried out training on self-skills, technical and vocational skills related to the requirements of the labor market for 16 graduates in the areas of communication, problem solving, team work, CV writing, interviewing, project management and writing reports. “The objective of the training is to develop the capabilities of female graduates to qualify them to enter the labor market, as well as to facilitate their training in civil society organizations and private sector institutions,” she said. “The training followed the best 10 female graduates for 4 months, depending on their specialization, to improve their profession and professional skills and improve their income.”

The Mustaqbali program is a holistic 22-year initiative that empowers orphaned children with the skills and provides them with the opportunities necessary to lead healthy, independent and productive lives.