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Refugee Stories
Styling a New Start - Women Benefit from Microfinance Syria, March 2008
Sequined evening dresses glitter in the window of Rawdha Saqbani’s house in Yarmouk. Rawdha is a mother of three and her husband works as a casual driver. Like most of the women in Yarmouk who have managed to establish their own business, Rawdha’s booming dress trade is part of the informal sector of the Syrian economy. Working from home, Rawdha uses beads to decorate wedding and evening dresses, which she then sells directly or through large merchants in Damascus. Proud of her work, she credits her success to God, perseverance and the UNRWA microfinance & microenterprise grant that gave her her first small loan. In July 2007, Rawdha received SYP 10,000 (USD 200) to purchase a beading machine to boost her small house-industry by upgrading the quantity and quality of her work. Explaining the difference the new machine has made, Rawdha says her "production has almost doubled." With new found confidence, in January 2008 Rawdha borrowed a further USD 200 to purchase raw materials including thread and beads. "Before receiving the loan I used to buy what I needed in installments," she says. Orders for her dresses are now coming in from a large number of garment factories. "Ever since I was a child, I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur", states Rawdha. "I used to sew with my mother. Now I run this small workshop." Mohammad al-Khatib, Acting Credit Operation Manager, Syria National Office, says:
Asked to explain more about her venture, Nahed says: "I collect the glass jars that hospitals use to put pills in. When they throw them out, I take them, clean and decorate them. I am producing and marketing my products in Damascus through a distributor." UNRWA’s MMD programme was launched in 1991 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in response to high unemployment and increasing poverty there. In 2003, it was expanded into Jordan and Syria to allow the Agency to help entrepreneurs and the poorest refugees in those fields. Syria’s programme is currently run by three branch offices in the Yarmouk, al-Amin, and Saida Zeynab refugee camps. In addition to its small credit loans, the programme gives out group loans specifically designed to enable Palestinian women to participate in the local economy. MMD endeavors to increase the self-sufficiency of refugees by empowering them financially. The programme is also open to Syrian nationals. It has given women like Rawdha and Nahed access to microfinance services, enabling them and their families to fulfill their hopes. "I feel very much inspired by the stories of these women, who have achieved so much," says Panos Moumtzis, Director of UNRWA Affairs, Syria. By Hala Mukhles |
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Nahed
Salameh runs a small workshop from her house where she crochets make-up
bags and turns used bottles and rope into magnets for refrigerators. She
has built up her business with financial assistance from UNRWA’s MMD.
With her most recent loan of SYP 10,000 Nahed purchased glass jars and
threads. She has attracted the interest of local shop owners, who have
begun to sell her trinkets in their stores. The income she generates
supplements the earnings of her husband, who works as a taxi-driver.