Syria - Village Business Incubator

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⇒ Episode 3 - MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

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Project implemented by AIDOS (Associazione Italiana Donne per lo Sviluppo), Italy (www.aidos.it) in partnership with FIRDOS, Syria (www.firdos.org)

Latakkia, Syria November 2010

Project co-financed by the European Commission   

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This is the village of Ein El Tineh in the Lattakia Governorate situated along the North western coast of Syria. Lattakia has an extensive agricultural hinterland and exports cereals, cotton, fruits, eggs, vegetable oil, pottery, and tobacco. Although the capital city of Lattakia is an economic hub with a port and a manufacturing centre that deals in metals, machinery and chemicals, the province of Lattakia is one of the poorest in the country.

 

With many men migrating to urban areas for work or getting employed in the state armed forces, women in this province, as in many rural communities in Syria, become de facto heads of households. Despite 77% of the Syrian women being literate, they neither have access to economic resources nor the skills required to become earning members of their households. Women in Syria comprise only 17% of the labour force. Nearly one fifth of the economically active women in Syria comprise the invisible workforce within family businesses or farming activities. Only a few women are self-employed or owners of businesses.

 

In order to provide business skills to women and help them start new businesses, AIDOS, an Italian non-government organisation, partnered with a Syrian organisation called FIRDOS or the Fund for Integrated Rural Development of Syria in order to establish a Village Business Incubator in the Ein El Tineh village. AIDOS promotes and defends women’s rights, dignity and the freedom of choice. It has been working in Syria since 2005 for the economic empowerment of women and for improving their health and social well being.

 

A project funded by the European Union, the Village business incubator in the Ein El Tineh village is a service and support centre for the development of women’s micro and small enterprises in nine villages of the province of Lattakia.

 

Alessia, who heads the AIDOS team in the Middle East, accompanied us to Lattakia and introduced us to the project. She informed us that the central pillar of the business incubator project is the economic potential for rural women in running small businesses. The income that women earn from their own businesses helps them gain confidence in themselves and provide better health care and education for their families.

 

The Village Incubator project has directly benefitted at least 500 women heads of households by providing them training in basic business skills, technical support for business start-ups, linking their businesses to markets and end-users, creating a network among women entrepreneurs so that they can exchange knowledge and experience and have a greater collective bargaining power.

 

Having their own business was a dream for many women in the Ein El Tineh village. Their dreams have now become reality. They have started small new businesses, like producing eco-friendly handicrafts, dairy processing, professional tailoring and weaving units. Not only do women earn an income now, they also hire their neighbours to work with them. They have gained new self-confidence. They participate actively in community activities. And above all, they have become agents of change in their communities and in their families.