Photo:USAID/Jordan
Zeinab plays with the children attending her kindergarten in Sakhra, Jordan.
Over 1500 entrepreneurs were trained, 80 percent of whom were women. Fourteen entrepreneurs have started their own businesses as a result of the training, and 45 more have conducted feasibility studies in preparation for starting their business.
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To meet this challenge, USAID developed a short-term business training initiative to help very small businesses in underprivileged communities start or improve their businesses. In the one year since the training began, the program has covered almost all areas of Jordan and provided post-training follow-up services of individual counseling, business mentoring, and business evaluation.
Zeinab conducted a feasibility study and a market needs assessment after completing her training. She then obtained a loan of $4,000 to open a nursery and kindergarten in her small village of Sakhra, near Ajloun in Northern Jordan.
110 students are now enrolled in Zeinab’s program and she employs nine women from her village. In addition to her business, Zeinab established a cooperative for the women from her village to utilize their many skills to improve their standards of living. The association will undertake many small projects such as a mill, a diary products production lab, and recycling of wool waste.
Zeinab has new hope and believes that by undertaking this challenge, she “was contributing to changing the stereotypical image of women and proving to those around me that the Jordanian woman is capable of participating in the social and economic development if she has the opportunity.”
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