NEF is supporting disadvantaged women in Palestine and Jordan to create businesses and achieve economic security. Each year NEF provides 250 women with training and coaching to build business management and leadership skills and helps them access start-up funding. With this support, they are able to earn money, lead change in their communities, and break the cycle of poverty to create better lives for their families.
Women in poor homes - rural and urban poor, heads of households, widows, refugees, victims of domestic violence - are assuming increasing responsibility for supporting their families in Palestine and Jordan. In spite of the necessity, they face common obstacles to participating in their local economies and receiving fair benefits: social barriers, lack of job skills or business management experience, and little access to credit.
Each year, NEF supports approximately 50 Palestinians, 100 Iraqi refugees, and 100 Jordanians start lasting businesses that pull their families out of poverty permanently. Working in partnership with local community associations, NEF provides the most vulnerable women with training in business management, helps them access start-up funding and credit, and facilitates networks to provide both business and social support.
Small businesses provide a sustainable way to help vulnerable women pull their families out of poverty and achieve economic security permanently. By working through local women's associations, we help create networks of businesswomen to continue to share their experience and to provide peer-to-peer business mentoring without NEF's involvement. This encourages the continued expansion of business opportunities and economic security for vulnerable women.
