V košíku nic není.
Když rodinám docházejí peníze na nájem, jídlo nebo léky, ženy – které v domácnostech často nesou hlavní odpovědnost za děti i finance – se čím dál častěji uchylují k půjčkám od sousedů nebo obchodníků, nebo omezují jídlo a další základní výdaje. Taková rozhodnutí prohlubují chudobu a zvyšují riziko zadlužení celé rodiny.
Řešením, které se v podobných situacích osvědčuje po celém světě, jsou komunitní spořicí skupiny. Nezačínají velkým grantem, ale pravidelným drobným spořením, jasnými pravidly, vzájemnou důvěrou a bezpečnými půjčkami uvnitř skupiny. Když je skupina dobře nastavená a doprovázená, pomáhá ženám zvládat nečekané výdaje, získat malou půjčku a bezpečně se posunout k vlastnímu drobnému podnikání.
CARE pomáhá v Jordánsku už od roku 1948 a patří tak mezi nejdéle působící mezinárodní organizace v zemi – díky tomu dobře známe místní komunity i jejich skutečné potřeby.
Model komunitních spořicích skupin (VSLA) CARE úspěšně používá už desítky let po celém světě. Aktuální čísla z naší praxe ukazují, jak velký dopad může mít i malá pravidelná úspora:
Manažerkou projektu je Barbora Kolečková – barbora.koleckova@care.cz
Projekt realizuje CARE Jordan ve spolupráci s CARE Česká republika. Plánovaná doba realizace je 18 měsíců, orientačně od 1. listopadu 2026 do 30. dubna 2028.
Podpořte projekt CARE a pomozte ženám v Jordánsku vybudovat si vlastní úspory, dovednosti i drobné podnikání. Děkujeme!
Basma Nazer from Jordan COVID19 Transcripts
Background:
Basma Nazer, 34, from Jordan runs a social enterprise ‘Khoyoot’, translating as Threads. Basma’s Khoyoot Initiative creates partnerships with women in a refugee camp to produce hand embroidered products. Khoyoot provides refugee women with embroidery courses after which they start creating different product lines. The revenue from the sales of the products is then used to fund more courses and initiatives within the camp. Basma has challenged many social norms in the camp, changing the women from being a financial burden to their families to a financial source of income. Through her enterprise, Basma is also employing women to coordinate and run the projects. Her work is very targeted and each of her five product lines tackle a specific issue – for example early marriage. The Initiative is now selling to fifteen countries worldwide. Basma received support from CARE as she grew her enterprise through CARE’s Women in Enterprise programme, supported by H&M Foundation. She benefited from business training, as well as a grant to channel into the training of the women refugees and materials for the embroidery. Basma was recently selected as a role model by CARE Jordan to tour the country and inspire other women who are thinking of setting up their own businesses. She has also won the Princess Basma Award for Social Work and the Crown Prince Foundation Prize for empowering women.
ZARQA – Syrian national Abeer Abbas was able to establish her own income-generating business, transforming a modestly-equipped kitchen into a small workshop manufacturing dairy products.
With her tools being only some pots, utensils, an oven and small refrigerator, Abeer has succeeded in manufacturing high quality products, despite the small quantities of sheep milk imported to her home-based workshop, and in building a customer network from her neighbors and acquaintances.
Failing to find a job, Abeer, 42, said she decided to start up her own business, hoping to secure a stable income that could sustain her sick husband and six children. She started from her home in Zarqa Governorate manufacturing dairy products from sheep milk. Abeer utilized the practical experience she acquired from her mother and the knowledge she learned from her studying science for her diploma. “Things like density, temperature, acidity and appropriate quantities were familiar to me,” she says.
“I used to be a primary school teacher in Syria and tried to find a job in my field in Jordan, but I could not, especially as we live in a poor neighborhood, where there is little or no demand for private tutoring.”
Abeer, who came to Jordan in 2013, says, “I also tried to work with NGOs, but working hours and locations made it difficult for me, especially since I am required to take care of my children.”
Abeer was amongst a group of women owners of micro-enterprises and home-based businesses, who have recently received intensive training from CARE International on establishing, managing, and developing small projects. In the training course, she explains that participating women were taught marketing and promotion techniques, problem-solving, leadership, and trust-building skills, as well as networking essentials to build a client base.
“The training has improved my knowledge with valuable information and refined my simple experience and advanced it to a better level,” Abeer says. “I learned to accept criticism on my products in a positive manner and I learned production improvement methods, resourcefulness, and how to find solutions to the problems I face – the last of which was the lack of sheep milk during this period of the year.”
“Abeer is like many women who can make trademarks if provided with constant support, guidance, and financing,” says trainer Mohammad Mari, who introduced the course to the women.
According to Mari, the biggest challenge facing Abeer and other women in the same situation is a lack of confidence. CARE trainings hope to boost their self-confidence through a specialized training that aims at helping beneficiaries overcome the social and economic obstacles they face in running their businesses.
In addition to the training, Abeer has participated in a saving program designed by CARE in cooperation with the Qudurat Association for Community Development. Through the program, which is part of CARE's Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), each participant can save money in the fund on a weekly basis and can access a small installment loan to develop a sustainable business.
“Despite all the difficulties I faced, starting with leaving Syria through the sickness of my husband and all the resulting challenges, I managed to establish a small yet sustainable business that provides me and my family with a stable income,” Abeer adds proudly.
CARE has recently launched an economic empowerment project targeting vulnerable groups of refugees and local communities, especially women and youth, with the aim of enhancing their resilience and access to income-generating opportunities.
In 2018, CARE launched a 12-year strategy to scale up its VSLAs, with the goal of supporting 50 million women and girls – and 65 million people overall – to form savings groups by 2030.
Looking ahead to 2030, CARE believes that scaling VSLAs and supporting their members to pursue their goals can have a substantial impact on the achievement of the 2030 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
Balqees, 18, is a student pursuing her high-school education from inside the Al-Azraq Refugee camp in Jordan. The camp, located about less than a two hour drive from Jordanian-Syrian border in a desert region, is home to about 45,000 Syrian refugees.
Asma, [ADD AGE], has been living in Al-Azraq for 8 years, and runs a pilot hyroponic farming project with the help of other camp residents, which they are hopeful will help provide lettuce, cabbage and other agrilcutural produce to the camp residents while generating some livelihood opportunities.
