Al-Bireh, August 05, 2008

The Palestinian Businesswomen's Association, Asala, through the Women's Economic Empowerment Unit, Irada, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), completed the Training of Trainers course where 36 women from districts throughout the West Bank benefited.  The purpose of the Irada project is to provide community based peer training to Palestinian women micro entrepreneurs in management, finance and marketing.  After completion of the ToT selected graduates then participated in Technical Training, which was designed to train trainers on theoretically and practically delivering concepts, techniques and methodologies related to management, finance and marketing.  After completion of the TT, graduates were selected to implement the training, namely: Fida Basalat, Niveen Alzughayar, Ibtisam Bedr, Abeer Awwad, Haneen Hijazi, Buthaina Hamed, Manal Dandees, and Ataf Elsharfa.  In July, Irada's team of trainers trained 72 women.

The trainings took place with the cooperation of the Palestinian Federation of Women's Action in Jenin, the Palestinian Working Women's Society in Ramallah, the Women's Technical Affairs Committee in Ramallah, Al Buet el Sa'ida Association in Hebron, Tafuh Association in Hebron and the Palestinian Working Women's Society in Bethlehem. The courses are equal to 240 hours of training total; at 30 hours per course and 5 days per course.

Asala, through an ongoing media campaign, announced to the public the availability of community based peer training and counseling related to successful management of micro enterprises. The training takes place when and where it is convenient to the micro entrepreneur and the material is adapted according to her needs.  Any Palestinian woman with an income generating project or with a strong desire to begin an income generating project is eligible to benefit from this training and counseling service.

Asala also carried out 1,110 field visits to its micro entrepreneurs throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip in July.  Of the 1,110 visits, 406 of them were to the West Bank and 704 of them were in the Gaza Strip. Further, Asala distributed 93 loans valued at USD 142,000; of them 54 loans valued at 111,200 were distributed in the West Bank and 39 loans valued at USD 30,900.