GENDER > PALESTINE
n Young women participate at the Women
Starting a business? Yes I can
Entrepreneurship Day (WED) organized by the Business and Professional Women, Ramallah Club
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The percentage of women in the overall labour force in Palestine does not exceed 14%. But some young female students have a clear goal in life: to become successful businesswomen. In order to learn how to start a business, they need to be trained, informed, motivated. A journalist of the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre attended a training session supported by the EU funded “Young women as job creators” project. This is his report. Text by: Elias Zananiri Pictures by: AFP © EU/Neighbourhood Info Centre RAMALLAH - “I know I am not even 20, but when it comes to my ambitions, the sky is the limit,” says Hiba Usama, a young Palestinian girl in her third university year. Hiba, 19, from Ramallah on the West Bank, wants to own her own business. The idea? To open a restaurant to serve special healthy meals. “I see people mostly eat junk food, and that is where my idea came from,” she explains. “I hope to see our future society suffering less and less from diseases related to bad eating habits.” Hiba is one of the hundred young university students, mostly women, attending the Women Entrepreneurship Day (WED) workshop organized in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean labeled project “Young Women as Job Creators”. The project is promoted by the Association of Organizations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME) and implemented in Palestine by the Business and Professional Women (BPW) Ramallah Club. It is funded by the Union for the Mediterranean, the EU, the Norwegian Government and the Spanish company Gas Natural Fenosa. The scope of the initiative? To learn how to start a business. “The workshop is very useful, it is opening up my mind – she says - I have learned that it is not enough This publication does to have an idea: you still need proper planning, minimal market research, and feasibility studies to see where not represent the you will be in three, five or ten years from now.” official view of the EC or the EU institutions. The EC accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to its content.
Only 14 women out of 100 have a job “Young Women as Job Creators Project” is a twelve-months programme launched in April 2013 to train some 10,000 young female university students from Morocco, Jordan, Spain and Palestine on how to become successful businesswomen and employers. The programme is promoted by the Association of Organizations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME) and endorsed by the 43 member states of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre Feature no. 109 This is a series of features on projects funded by the EU, prepared by journalists and photographers on the ground or the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre. © 2013 EU/Neighbourhood Info Centre
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“Our role is to identify students with potential and make sure they understand that leadership and creativity depend on their capacity to transform a new idea into a substantial business success”
Khalid Abedallah, member of the BPW Ramallah Club, at the podium duringt the seminar organized by the Women Entrepreneurship Days, in Ramallah
A few male students showed interest to attend, and the BPW Ramallah Club didn’t object. But a number of considerations stood behind the emphasis on women for this project. The percentage of women in the overall labour force in Palestine does not exceed 14% and a substantial effort is therefore needed to encourage their engagement. Another factor is the rising percentage in Palestine of literate women, today at 89%. Amazingly enough, unemployment rates are highest among women with 13 or more years of schooling. But the more women are part of the labour force, the better their chances for proper integration into society. This is the opinion of Ambassador Delphine Borione, Deputy Secretary General of the UfM’s Social and Civil Affairs Division. She flew from Barcelona, home of the UfM Secretariat, to attend the workshop. She says she is quite impressed with the enthusiasm of the participants. “Most of the girls do not know what direction they will take upon graduation,” she says, “but some already have ideas of what they want to do in their post-university life. And opportunities such as this workshop are very precious for them.” Learning from those who made it The workshop is taking place at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) in Ramallah, which is a collaborator of the project’s partner BPW Ramallah Club. “Our aim is to support these girls,” says CCI head Khalil Rizeq. “We try to give them all the guidance we can, we even opened our office so that they can come and spend time researching for their businesses.” He welcomes the idea of raising local funds from large companies to help young people start up their new businesses. During the workshop, participants are exposed to success stories. One of them comes from Noor Mohammad Taha, who is only 21. “I came to the CCI, they gave me guidance and a space that became my little office. I started creating a network and eventually set up my firm some six months ago,” she says. Noor is already a certified interior designer. She sounds satisfied, although she admits that she continues to face some challenges. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer, a doctor or anything else, but not an interior designer. She counts on her success to win them over. “The more I succeed, the less will be my difficulties in convincing my family that I took the right decision and that I'm on the right track.”
“I have learned that it is not enough to have an idea: you still need proper planning, minimal market research, and feasibility studies to see where you will be in three, five or ten years from now”
n Hilda Awwad, President of the BPW Ramallah Club, on the right, gives to Hiba Osama, on the left, a certificate at the end of the seminar
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“My key to success,” she concludes, “is perseverance.” Society needs to accommodate students’ talent Three local universities in the West Bank have joined the programme. Hilda Awwad, BPW Ramallah Club President, hopes that thanks to the great interest and enthusiasm, further moves will take place to enlarge the programme and involve more universities in the West Bank. “To accommodate students’ talents to society’s needs,” she says, “is a great achievement, not only for the new graduates, but also for the society at large.” BPW Ramallah Club will continue to advise the project’s participants after the project’s end in order to provide them with all the necessary legal and administrative support for their future businesses. The three colleges are the UNRWA-run Women’s Community College, Birzeit University, and the Palestine n Delphine Borione, in the center, Deputy Secretary General for Social and Civil Affairs in the Technical Girls’ College, which has around 600 students, Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean and Ms. Hilda Awwad, on the right, 200 of whom graduate every year. Founded back in Association president, talk with young women during the workshop 1952, the college offers diplomas and BA degrees in a cluster of vocational training such as computer “To accommodate students’ talents to society’s programming, graphic designs, interior architects and needs is a great achievement, not only for the new others. “Our role is to identify students with potential graduates, but also for the society at large” and make sure they understand that leadership and creativity depend on their capacity to transform a new idea into a substantial business success,” says Sahab Zalmout, who represents the College in the workshop. Musab Abdul Majid Abu Aideh is 19 years old and lives in the village of Biddo, on the western outskirts of the city of Jerusalem. He is one of the few male students who participates in the programme. His dream is to own a bookstore where he hopes to encourage book reading as opposed to spending long hours on computers. “I know it is not so easy to start a new business, but with the kind of partnership I have seen among stakeholders in this programme, everything is doable.”
Young Woman as Job Creators http://www.afaemme.org/young-woman-project/content The project promotes self-employment and entrepreneurship among young women university students who are about to graduate from a university and who have an interest in starting their own business. Timeframe: April 2013- April 2014 Implementing partners: Morocco, Jordan, Spain and Palestine
Objective: the project’s focus is the organization of Women Entrepreneurship Days (WEDs), consisting of seminars which will provide the participants with free advice to create new businesses. The WEDs will be hosted by local universities, faculties, higher education centres and similar agencies offering useful training, advice, motivation, key basics for setting up a company, involvement of role models and support while putting a special focus on women-related issues. To find out more The Union for the Mediterranean http://ufmsecretariat.org/ The Union for the Mediterranean - project fiche http://ufmsecretariat.org/young-women-as-job-creators-2/ The Association of Organizations of Mediterranean Businesswomen http://www.afaemme.org/ EU Neighbourhood Thematic page: GENDER http://www.enpi-info.eu/thememed.php?subject=12
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