Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has concluded the first phase of an economic empowerment project for poor families in Jerusalem with QR300,000 provided by Qatar’s General Directorate of Endowments.
The project covers families with orphaned members as well as low-income earners in Jerusalem and its outskirts.
The projects will help families find a stable source of income; improve their standard of living as well as social and psychological conditions; create more job opportunities and employ more labour in local community; and reduce poverty and unemployment rates among Jerusalem’s Arab population.
The project has two aspects with the first involving purchasing sheep for the needy families that have livestock breeding experience and place. Eleven families received five heads of sheep each in addition to feed and water troughs, so that they can sell meat and milk products on the local market.
The second aspect of the project is vocational rehabilitation. Some 35 sewing machines were distributed to poor families whose breadwinners are widows, so that they could generate money and afford the cost of living. The beneficiaries who have no experience in tailoring will be trained in how to use the new machines, until they become able to work on their own.
A field survey was conducted to identify the beneficiaries from among the poorest families and families with orphans, who were given priority in receiving the assistance.
The developmental project comes amid difficult economic conditions for the Palestinian society in general and poor and low-income families in particular, let alone the high unemployment rates due to security restriction and the increasing humanitarian needs with the approach of the winter.
