(ُEqtsad)- Om Mahmood is proud of herself for being able to support her family from her work in sewing and hand-craft, after joining the Woman centre in the camp of Atme on the Turkish border.
Om Mamood is now able to earn SYP.40,000 from her work, which can cover the majority of her family’s needs.
“I heard that a centre to teach skills of sewing and hand craft, hairdressing, and drawing to empower women is open in the camp, I went there and learnt sewing, them I bought a specialized sewing machine to cover the needs of camp’s women.
Activities of the centre of empowering women in the camp or “women centre” as it is known, is not restricted to teaching women skills, but it gives lecture and education workshops about early marriage, breast feeding and other issues related to increasing women's education and awareness.
Trainer M.R. told Eqtsad that the centre provides sessions of literacy and memorising Guran, besides education about violence, skills of successful life, parenting skills besides family planning and safe environment for children.
The trainer talked on condition of anonymity according to rules of the organisation supporting the project of the camp, as it prevent workers from appearing on media. She mentioned that the centre targets girls at age 13 and over, while session about violence are given to women over 25 years old.
The trainer mentioned that the centre is witnessing good and increasing attendance of girls and women as the number reached to 60-70 girls a day. The reason is that parents feel safe for their girls in the centre as it is almost completely run by women
M.R. mentioned that the main message of the centre is to empower women and enable them to enter the work market strongly, to earn money needed to cover their families’ needs.
The trainer explained that the centre had organised 4 exhibitions of trainees products, and selling them.
Despite the great effects of empowering Women centre in Atme camp, it still lack of support and sustainable source of fund besides lack of strategy for continuous support and service. However the enthusiasm of trainers and workers in the centre, give the hope that it would find the way to keep it running.
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