In Palestine, A Young Woman Channels Her Skills to Help Others
Read All Posts
Manal Abu Ali graduated from the Arab American University of Jenin with a major in Management Information Systems; yet like thousands of her peers, she realized that her years of study offered no guarantee of a job. Roughly 44 percent of young Palestinians are unemployed, half of whom hold university degrees.
Her determination lead the 22-year-old to enroll in the Youth Earn project offered through Partners for Sustainable Development with support from the International Youth Foundation (IYF). Through the program, she benefited from life skills instruction based on IYF’s Passport to Success® curriculum, along with training in entrepreneurship and how to develop a community service project. The experience equipped Manal with the knowledge and skills she needed to pursue her passion.
“On a personal level, it [the training] gave me the confidence I needed to be more social and outspoken,” she says. “Professionally, the training challenged my thoughts, and allowed me to tap into my creativity.” Although currently employed part-time at an electronics store, Manal is driven to provide other youth in her community with opportunities to gain the skills she learned.
To reach her goal, in late 2014, Manal, along with 20 other youth, launched a new social enterprise, the Palestinian Entrepreneurship and Creativity Women’s Organization (PECWO). Its goal: to train women with the skills needed to enter the labor market and channel their abilities and entrepreneurial spirit into money-making ideas for a better livelihood. The organization currently engages 100 volunteers, who network with partners, provide trainings and support, and organize events and activities. PECWO conducts roughly 10 activities per month in Jenin and surrounding communities through partnerships with 20 local businesses and NGOs. To date, the organization has leveraged 60,000 NIS from local organizations and businesses in addition to securing a fully-furnished, free-of-charge office space.
So far, 50 youth have benefited from PECWO activities, with an additional 35 young people being trained in partnership with Palestinian Vision (PalVision or "Ru’ya") through its Find a Job is a Job program. PECWO also facilitated paid internships with Ru’ya for 10 youth and partners with local organizations to organize events where youth can promote their homemade products and contract their peers to help out in areas like marketing.
Manal and the PECWO team seek to address the high rate of unemployment among Palestinian youth through strengthening their skills and connecting them to opportunities. “I know how hard it is to find a job and I know what the labor market requires,” says Manal. “By establishing PECWO, I not only created an opportunity for myself and others to volunteer, but to share the skills we gained for the benefit of our community.”
Manal is one of 839 youth to benefit from entrepreneurship training through IYF’s Youth Entrepreneurship Development initiative, supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission to the West Bank and Gaza.