Empower Women Entrepreneurs in Palestine & Jordan

With support from the Near East Foundation (NEF), made possible in part by your generous support, women like Khadija have started 50 new businesses in the West Bank – creating 103 new jobs! 

NEF provides women with training in microenterprise development, supports them in the development of professional business plans, and helps the participating women to secure funding for their new projects.  Women have created exciting and unique new businesses – clothes shops, organic food stores, mushroom agribusinesses, and beekeeping operations among others.  These businesses are helping the women and their families achieve financial independence.

Khadija, a single mother, has expanded her clothes shop to include sewing machines so that she can make alterations for her customers.

Her village of Haris, in the West Bank, only had one clothing store.  Whe she overheard people in her community talk about the need for variety, Khadija responded by raising the capital for a new clothing business with her brother. But she soon saw an opportunity to expand. 

“I noticed most of the women who come to buy from my shop also need their clothes altered,” she said. “I realized that a sewing machine would give me a competitive advantage in the market.”

Khadija participated in NEF’s program – creating a business plan to grow her business and successfully securing a start-up grant for expansion.

“Having your own business is not only about money,” she says. “It is also about achieving your social, psychological, and financial independence. My business makes me feel that I’m an active and useful person in this community.”

THANK YOU for your ongoing support and for helping women like Khadija to star new businesses that help their families achieve financial independence and benefit their community.