On April 16th and 17th an exchange visit has been undertaken between the beneficiaries of the Water Agreement Project (Improving Management of Water Resources in Agriculture to ensure food security in the occupied Palestinian Territories and Jordan) in Palestine and Jordan. The exchange visit, directed by the Palestinian Agriculture Development Association (PARC), the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and the FPSC, brought five Palestinian women from several women associations and corporations in Karak and Balqa’a Governorate to share ideas and to see what has been done so far in Jordan.
The first day visit in Karak’s Governorate took place in A’ye, Al-Mazra’a and Al-Karak area. The first one is Al-Hezman Women Association for Development and Social Services, the Head of the Association Mrs Nadera Rawashdeh showed the implemented works, like the cheese factory, and explained that they have several ongoing projects for agriculture, culture, health and social issues.
The A’y association is the only one working in the area; they give support and assistance to the community in 3 villages, giving money to women in order to make them able to work at home and increase the family income.
The second one is Raedat Al Taghyyer women cooperative, established in 2008 they implemented several project and others are ongoing like the beauty center training, sewing courses to fix clothes for the community and IT computer training for students and employees.
The third one is Manshyyah women cooperative run by Sabha Sbehat, is a profit organization that produces traditional dresses and silver objects. They obtain several grants from different NGOs and they become experts in writing proposals, so much that they start training for other organizations. They also do workshops to teach how to work the silver, agriculture projects and free training for Human Rights.
The second day visit in Balqa’a Governorate took place in Al-Kafrain and Salt villages.
The first organization, Kafrain CDC run by Sirin Al Sharif, is the most important in the area, they implemented several projects and many others are ongoing. The most remarkable are the bakery training and the Abaya fashion workshops for the local community and Amman. They also work in collaboration with the institutions among schools, agriculture and Syrian refugees.
The last organization Basmat Al Khair Women Association is run by Bathena Al Zo’bi, who competed to the parliamentary elections, fact that is quite extraordinary considering that it is a conservative area. They work among childhood with a kindergarten inside the organization, old houses rehabilitation and agriculture; they also have a volunteer hosting program in which they provide accommodation and food.
The remarkable thing among all these organizations, profit and non profit, is that all of them have a common goal: support the family through action focused in helping women, teaching them and giving them grants in order to increase the family incomes.