Qatar Charity (QC) has carried out hundreds of income-generating projects in Gaza and Somalia during 2017, benefiting some 872 families in the two regions, and also launched some projects earlier this year.
The projects helped “protect the dignity of needy people” by creating a permanent source of income, with the support of philanthropists in Qatar, QC said in a statement.
The director of the Qatar Charity office in the Gaza Strip, Mohamed Abu Haloub, said 148 Palestinian families benefited from the income-generating projects implemented by QC at a cost of QR1.4mn last year. The projects were launched in order to contribute to the easing of economic and social pressures on poor families.
He added that the QC office, since the beginning of 2018, has started implementing 137 income-generating projects in various parts of the Gaza Strip to contribute to the transition from sponsorship to development.
“Qatar Charity aims, through the implementation of these projects, to contribute to improving family income and increasing self-reliance, as well as contribute to enhancing the positive community perception towards productive families” he noted.
Abu Haloub said 148 families (1,036 individuals) of those sponsored by Qatar Charity within its social welfare and sponsorship programme have benefited from these projects, which have been implemented in co-ordination with several local and government institutions. He said a number of poor families in the Gaza Strip, who are not included in QC sponsorship, are also beneficiaries of these projects.
QC has provided needy people in the Gaza Strip and Somalia with different types of income-generating projects, including fishing boats, poultry farming, shops, dairy cattle, goats, transport vehicles, sewing machines, embroidery machines, motorcycles and mobile selling carts, the statement notes.
In the same context, the director of QC’s office in Somalia, Abdel Nour Mirsal, said it implemented 724 income-generating projects benefiting some 61,847 people last year in order to contribute to economic development, revive the spirit of earning in poor and needy families and promote livelihoods and self-sufficiency.
He stressed that the economic empowerment projects would contribute to a reduction in the high unemployment rate, which had reached 67% among young people, representing 70% of the population of Somalia, and creation of more jobs was urgently required.
He said QC provides material assistance to poor families and focuses on income-generating projects by providing small means of production, such as sewing machines, mills, small fishing boats, transport vehicles, irrigation generators and shops.
