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TunisiaWomen’s economic empowerment in practice: RUWOMED project beneficiaries at European Week of Regions and Cities
October 11, 2016
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Needa Salama, a Palestinian mother of five, travelled all the way from her small Palestinian village of Kufur Malik to tell her story during a workshop taking place in Brussels on 11 October in the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities. She will explain how her life has changed thanks to her involvement in the RUWOMED project, funded by the EU under theCBC Mediterranean Sea Basin programme.
Before the project, Needa was a housewife spending most of her time taking care of home duties. Now, together with a group of five women from her village, she is running a small beekeeping business. Thanks to the project, she was provided with tools, equipment and hives needed to start honey production. She also took part in training sessions to learn about agriculture techniques, business management, accountability, marketing, and travelled to Madrid to showcase her organic honey during a fair trade exhibition.
Eventually, Needa and the other women of the Muntaha group are now able to produce 150 kg of honey each year whilst they did not know anything about bees before the RUWOMED project. The honey is sold locally through family networks and Needa intends to reach soon bigger cities like Ramallah or markets outside Palestine.
Her story will be told during a workshop entitled “Building Bridges at the EU’s external borders: growing together to find common solutions to common challenges through the ENI CBC” which will look at the results of cross-border cooperation projects in the fields of social inclusion and entrepreneurship.
RUWOMED has supported hundreds of women from Palestine, and Palestinian women living in refugee camps in Lebanon in the development of small businesses in the agri-food sector so they can work and contribute to the income of their family.
The ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme 2007/2013 is a multilateral cross-border cooperation programme funded by the European Union under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. It aims at reinforcing cooperation between the EU and partner countries’ regions located along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
Read more
RUWOMED project website
ENPI CBCMED – website
Countries covered:
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Palestine *
