Al-Bireh, September 03, 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), provided training to 87 Palestinian women in August.  These trainings are made up of a total 270 training hours at 30 hours per 5 day training course.

The trainings were delivered by Irada's pool of trainers to Palestinian women in their communities in cooperation with the following organizations: Betheny Association, Women's Affairs Technical Committee, Al Nawras Cultural Center, Al Najda Association for Palestinian Women Development, Beit Umar Association, Miftah and Tulkarem Kindergarten Union. The trainings took place in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Qalqilyah, Hebron and Tulkarem and covered topics that are crucial to the establishment and development of income generating projects.

Also during August, Asala disbursed 199 loans valued at USD 228,400 to Palestinian women throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 76 of these loans worth USD 181,400 were distributed in the West Bank and 123 of the total worth USD 47,000 were distributed in the Gaza Strip.  As part of its follow up program, Asala also carried out 1,101 field visits to clients' projects.