THE STORY OF BASMA

When her husband divorced her two years ago to marry another woman, Basma felt utterly lost. Her husband kept their four children with him and sent her away. Basma had no other choice but to go back to live with her parents.

Like many women in Jabal el-Hussein camp in Amman, Basma had left school at an early age and had not acquired any skills to use for earning a living.

"When she first visited the Legal Advice Bureau (LAB) in the camp, Basma was in a state of despair", says Randa Halaweh, UNRWA's Women's Programme Officer in Jordan. The lawyer who works at the Bureau as a volunteer explained to Basma her rights: that she has the right of custody over her children, and the right to receive alimony for her and the children.

With financial and professional support from the UNRWA's Legal Advice Bureau, Basma eventually filed a court case against her divorce and obtained a verdict obliging her ex-husband to pay her alimony of JD 90 a month and to give her custody of the children.

Basma is one of hundreds of women who have benefited from the Legal Advice Bureau in Jabal el-Hussein camp. UNRWA set up the Bureau in 1995, a year after a similar centre had been opened in Amman New Camp (Wihdat).

The two centres were opened after a series of legal literacy courses had been conducted at several women's programme centres in Jordan. The courses revealed that there was a dire need for raising the women's awareness of their rights and for providing them with legal counseling.

Basma attended a sewing course at the women's programme centre in the camp. She is now working for a clothing factory in Amman, which earns her JD 100 a month, and together with the alimony she receives from her ex-husband she is able to support herself and her children.

Basma is now looking for a house to rent so that she can live independently with her children.