ActionAid Palestine to Organize Life Skills Training for Young Women with Disabilities in Hebron Governorate

Hebron -West Bank -ActionAid-Palestine (AAP) organized a specialized training in partnership with organization of QADER for Community Development targeting 13 young women with disabilities from the Old City in Hebron Governorate. The training focused on entrepreneurship, life skills, and economic empowerment, with the aim of enhancing the inclusion and participation of young women with disabilities in the labor market. This training is part of AAP’s project “Valiance -Basala -Empowering women in old City of Hebron(H2)” funded by Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

This training aimed at enhancing and building the capacities of young women with disabilities to facilitate their integration and participation in labor market so that they would become productive, active and capable women in labor market. The training lasted for 5 days in which they were trained on skills of communication, conflict management, mediation, negotiation,time management and public speaking. Acquiring those skills will enhance young women with disabilities to express themselves. This training is an introduction to another specialized for young women with disabilities  that AAP will organize it later on economic empowerment to improve their economic  skills and capacities needed for establishing their enterprises and developing their existing ones to be prepared for entering labor market.

Aya Iqnaibi is young woman with disability who participated in this training highlighted  importance of it  for her: “ this training provided me with a great opportunity to enter   the labor market by developing my abilities and skills and  breaking the barrier of fear and anxiety from society and building a personality capable of facing challenges.”

Aya talked about the difficulties and challenges facing persons with disabilities: "we have difficulties in finding job opportunities because of the lack of enforcement of laws and policies concerning people with disabilities.  There are no suitable and harmonized buildings or places for us. Furthermore, there are very few economic empowerment programs that support young women with disabilities. Job opportunities must be created for young women with disabilities to increase their participation in their communities”.

People with Disabilities in Palestine constitutes 2% of the Palestinian population (2% in the West Bank and 3% in Gaza Strip according to statistics of Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2021. The 2017 Census data indicated that the unemployment rate among persons with disabilities in Palestine participating in the labour force who are aged 15 years and over was 37%, (19% in the West Bank and 54% in Gaza Strip).

Background Information

ActionAid in Palestine (AAP) is a part of global federation working for social justice and gender equality and eradicate poverty in more than 45 countries around the world. AAP started its work in Palestine in 2007 to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian People as ActionAid believes that they should enjoy their rights to freedom, justice and self-determination. AAP implements a number of programs through its engagement with communities and women and youth groups seeking to empower them and enhance their influential civil and political participation to understand their rights and undertake collective activism to address the protracted rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation of Palestine. AAP works simultaneously to enhance their leadership capacity and knowledge to practice their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers to account.

For more information, please contact

Riham Jafari

Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication in Palestine

Mobile:

+972 (0) 595242890

Office:

+972 (0) (2) 22 13 137

Email: Riham.Jafari@actionaid.org