Making a decent living: small business transforming lives in the West Bank
14 November 2006Trying to make ends meet in the West Bank is a daily battle, with spiralling costs, diminishing incomes, road blockades cutting off access to fields and markets and a worsening water shortage.
Sonia Awaad feeds her sheep
©CARE/George Sahhar
Despite immense challenges, our SAFES project, is helping nearly 800 families increase their income and food supplies by providing sheep, goats and fodder as well as crucial training in how to make their flocks and gardens more profitable.
Three goats and training in food processing, business start-up and animal-rearing have helped Sonia Awaad from Jenin become self-sufficient after her family’s income dropped dramatically when her husband’s tailoring business was forced to close because of the intifada and the separation wall.
• More than 750 families have started growing food or keeping animals in Jenin in the West Bank as a way of making money through our SAFES project.
She says: “I am now selling milk and yoghurt and I have the money my children need for their daily expenses. My children’s nutrition is improving because they’re eating yoghurt and milk.”
Inspired by the training she received, Sonia has teamed up with six others from her course to open a small shop in Zababdeh village. She’s also selling produce to the nearby university as well as linking up with a food distributor in Ramallah with whom she plans to barter food items that are in short supply in Jenin.
“Without SAFES,” said Sonia, “I would never have been able to dream of being self-sufficient.”
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