Volunteer initiative boosts Gaza women’s self-reliance
Isra Saleh el-Namey-11 March 2016
Salwa al-Jamal moved briskly between customers at the hall of the Red Crescent building in Gaza City. Her embroidery was proving popular and al-Jamal looked flushed and excited.
“I am very proud when people are interested in my products,” she told The Electronic Intifada on a short break from attending to business. “They take a long time to finish, but it’s worth it.”
Under a recent scheme started by volunteers in Gaza, the 44-year-old widow has been afforded the opportunity to start her own business after long having had to rely on charity to raise her seven children following the death of her husband five years ago.
Her entrepreneurship, and that of 16 other women, has been nurtured and encouraged by Ihsan — literally “to be caring” — a 150-strong team of volunteers, which has taken it upon themselves to organize a host of activities around Gaza, including trade shows for women to show off their skills and sell their own products.
It took three months to prepare for and organize the 22-23 February fair in which al-Jamal participated. Ihsan provided not only the necessary materials for embroidery — from cloth and thread to needles and sewing machines — volunteers also held training workshops and were provided the space needed in which to work.
One of the volunteers was Samira Tuman.
“These women were driven by a desire to change their miserable circumstances,” said Tuman. “I was amazed by how fast they learned and how hard they worked.”
The ghost of poverty
Ihsan started its mission in 2011. Fatima Hijazi, one of the group’s main organizers, said the guiding principle behind Ihsan was the old adage about how best to help those in need: “Do not give me fish,” in Hijazi’s version: “Teach me how to fish.”
The group, which operates only in the Gaza Strip, reaches out to women in marginalized communities and tries to help them be independent. The idea is to have a “significant and long-lasting” impact on their lives, Hijazi told The Electronic Intifada.
One of the aims, Hijzai said, was to empower women and change perceptions of them from being solely recipients of aid to being productive participants in society.
“The team fights stereotypes. We provide examples of strong women who work hard to save their families from the ghost of poverty,” she said.
She also highlighted the importance of volunteering in a society at risk of both complete economic breakdown and social disintegration because of the suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel in 2007.
