The project for the empowerment of Lebanese women in rural areas is being developed properly

Last November 2013 the Project “Strengthening the social and economic impact of the Lebanese women in the rural areas, through the development of tourism and small company” started in Lebanon, whose general objective is to contribute to the women’s social and economic empowerment, and to slow down the high level of migration through the creation of the employment in the tourism sector.

With the objective to slow down the migration, mainly in the Lebanese rural area, PRODES, with the support of FPSC and Fondazione Roma Mediterraneo, are executing this project of professional training for young girls, that aims to incorporate them correctly to the labor market, in the tourism and hospitality field. This sector offers more than 2.880 employments every year, nevertheless trained workforce in this field barely exists The training also offers a module of creating small companies that permit them elaborate a business plan to create small familiar companies.

Thanks to this project which is financed by Fondazione Roma Mediterraneo, the Lebanese women participants in the program of professional training are expanding and developing their theoretical-practical knowledge in the sector of tourism services’, applying in concrete way the basics ideas of management that they receive. It permits them develop the technical-professional skill in the culinary sector, hospitality, accommodation and reception, gaining the professional competency needed for working, once they finish their training period.

The participants come mainly from the villages in the north of Lebanon. For example, Giselle, a young woman living in a war displaced neighborhood has acquired the appropriate professional training to improve her job performance at a restaurant in Byblos. Now Giselle plans to open her own micro-enterprise chef at home, preparing and selling food to reach the Lebanese households.

Six months after its beginning, we can say that the training project is developing well and is obtaining good results in both the technical training and the creation of micro-enterprises by the students in rural areas.