Exchanging More Than Knowledge / Jordan

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Al-Zeina, Maha, Islam and Hanadi are four ladies who have met through UNDP’s Skills Exchange project in Al-Mafraq governorate which is funded by the European Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) and soon became close friends. Their friendship; fuelled by knowledge-sharing and personal interactions has paved the way for a promising business partnership between them. They have so many things in common; albeit not all were positive as the four ladies suffered from isolation and idleness. Maha (Um Ghassan) and Hanadi (Um Zaid) who are Syrian overcame their depression, “I used to cry everyday, and when I joined the project I was still feeling lonely and depressed. But that has changed after a few days thanks to the personal development sessions I attended and the kindness of the participants” says Maha.

“The project has helped me gain the neighbourhood’s trust.”. Maha Tilawi is from Homs — Syria. She is 51 years old with 35 years of experience in making all kinds of clothes. She has lost one of her sons in the war and is now the sole provider for her family of 8. “The project has helped me gain the neighbourhood’s trust. No one came to me for tailoring jobs before but after they heard about my participation in UNDP’s Skills Exchange project as a mentor they started to approach me for complicated tailoring jobs”. About her experience as a Syrian refugee in Jordan; Maha says: “There’s the good and the bad. When I first joined the training I was very nervous about dealing with Jordanians due to some negative past experiences but a few days later I started to make friends.” She also learned a lot as part of the training program is brushing up on the mentors’ technical skills.