Spotlight on Opportunities

Sabira Itani, the only fisherwoman in Beirut who challenged the stereotype of defeated widows and provided a role model of the hidden capabilities of women.  Sabira left school to help her father with his farm in Dalia area of Beirut after the death of her mother.  She is engaged in fishing for the past 12 years after the death of her spouse when she held a fishing net weighing 8 kilograms and threw it in the water to feed her three children.
Sabira was born in 1962 in a family of eight children.  She went very briefly to school and left it in 1975 after the death of her mother and so as to help her father and work with embroidery.  She raised poultry and sold milk until she married in 1979 to a fisherman whom she loved and helped in his work and learned the secrets of the trade from him.  Her husband died in a boat collision and the perpetrator of the accident was never identified.  After that, Sabira took hold of the net and started working and taught the trade to her sons and tought them until they decided not to go to university.
Sabira practices a trade generally reserved for men but is accompanied by her brother every day she goes to fish or prepare for fishing at 2:00 am.  When she works during the day, she works alone and drives her car to Zahrani to sell her fish to shops and to private clients.  Her daughter runs the household.  She has little relations with her women neighbor as she is different from them since she has challenged taboos as a result of economic hardship which required her to be economically independent.  She also smokes in public after smoking privately for years.  As such, Sabira became a role model for women so as they are inspired to release their inner capabilities.
Source: The Daily Star 24 October 2013

One Wig Stand: a Lebanese breast cancer awareness and support NGO
Address: Alfred Naccache Street, Facing Mar Mitr, Achrafieh, Beirut
Contact information:
Tel: +961 1 203 112 / +961 79 158 471
Email: info@onewigstand.org
Social Media Tools:
Facebook
Twitter

The Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation

Address: AUBMC, Basille Center, Hamra
Contact information:
Tel: +961 1 350000 ext. 7489
 

Marsa Sexual Health Center
Address: Beirut, Hamra, Clemenceau, next to Haigazian University, Mexico Street,
Myrtom House Building, 2nd Floor.
Contact information:
Tel: +961 1 737647
Email: info@marsa.me
Social Media Tools:
Facebook
Youtube Channel

The May Jallad Foundation for Cancer
Contact information:
Tel: + 961(3)241842
Email: info@mayjalladfoundation.com
 

Yaduna - Women Heart Health Center (WHHC)
Address: Baabda main road,
Contact information:
Tel: 05 923 229
Email: info@yaduna.org
Social Media Tools:
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube Channel

Amneh al Duhini, (Omm el Abed) who occupies a sidewalk in Raouche with her vending cart on which she sells corn cobs and fava beans and which have become quite prized by her customers
Omm el Abed's day begins by preparing her work tools including cleaning and cooking the products.  Omm el Abed husband's then moves the vending machine to Raouche using his van at 4 pm accompanied by his wife and four daughters.  Omm el Abed and her family work every day of the week and when she returns very late to her house in Ain el Remmaneh where she moves to caring for her family.
Omm el Abed is determined in confronting life's economic and social hardship working daily on her vending cart from 4 to 12 midnight and earning a few thousand dollars a day which she uses to support her husband and family.
Although operating a vending cart is more of a male trade, Omm al Abed insist on providing a decent living to her family, stating that the public is now well familiar with her and to her husband and supportive of her work.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 14 August 2013

Zeinab Nassrallah is a 39 years old woman, who grows tobacco in an area exceeding 50 thousand square meters, produces bread, and sells it on a daily basis, also runs a small commercial shop near her home, and follows studies in one of the neighboring religious schools ‘Hawzaat’. She says that organization and good management are the two backbones of success. Despite the skepticism of some of her neighboring farmers about her capacity to grow tobacco alone on such a large area, Zeinab indicated that she began at 17 years of age by cultivating 12 dunums, reaching now 50 dunums and aiming for more. She noted that the personal and external difficulties that she has gone through (poverty, war and the premature death of her father) have strengthened her resolve to maintain her dignity and the dignity of her sisters.
Zeinab points out that what bothers her most are not work difficulties but criticisms by others. Some for example do not approve of her driving a pick-up truck to transfer laborer. Nevertheless, Zeinab remains upbeat and ambition now to learn how to fix vehicles to address emergencies. She also has plans to raise cattle and bees, and thus secure less strenuous livelihood opportunities to her sisters.
Source: Al-Akhbar Newspaper 22 July 2013

The following associations provide technical support to women entrepreneurs. Provided services include collaborative and supportive campus community; stimulating creative and professional partnerships through learning courses, training workshops and close coaching:

• AMIDEAST|| Strengthening Civil Society Program
• Baldati
• Bader
• The Business Incubation Association of Tripoli – BIAT
• Hayya Bina
• Ibtikar
• Makhzoumi Foundation
• Renee Moawad Foundation
• Safadi Foundation || Women’s Academy
• Social Welfare Institutions in Lebanon
• Women's Funding Network
• Women Economic Empowerment Program || CRTD.A
• Women in Information Technology
• YMCA - Women's Empowerment Department

For information and updates on women rights and related campaigns, please review the websites and web-pages listed below.
These associations work towards realizing women’s economic, social and political rights through campaigning and advocacy, training and capacity building.

Protection of women from gender based violence

• ABAAD- Resource Center for Gender Equality
• KAFA: Enough Violence and Exploitation

Women full citizenship

• Nationality Campaign & CRTD.A Collective for Research on Training and Development – Action

Women economic empowerment

• CRTD.A Collective for Research on Training and Development – Action

Sexual harassment

• Nasawiya

Women domestic workers rights

• Amel International Association
• Anti Racism Movement (ARM)
• INSAN Association
• KAFA: Enough Violence and Exploitation
• The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH)

There are several organizations that provide micro-financing and medium-size loans to individual and groups of women looking to initiate a personal project.  Most of these organizations are of national scope and some maintain branches in parts of the country.

Financial providers that have experience in lending and guiding women in undertaking their own economic projects:

• AMEEN financing for a better world
• Al Qard Al Hassan
• The Lebanese Association for development - Al Majmoua
• Makhzoumi Foundation
• Association Najdeh

Banking institutions:

• Ebdaa Bank
• Ibtikar
• We initiative || BLC Bank

Several associations seek to provide support and guidance to individual women and women groups/cooperatives through facilitating market access for their agricultural, food and crafts products.  Most of these associations have a local and community outreach base and will provide women with the opportunity to market their products through exhibitions and building their marketing skills.

Associations:

• Ajialouna
• CRTD.A || WEEP – Namlieh
• Forsa Association in Baalbeck
• Imam Sadr Foundation
• Jihad Al-Binaa || Ardi
• Mada
• Made @ home
• Nowara
• Souk Al Tayeb
• Rene Moawad Foundation
• Safadi Foundation || Women’s Academy
• Social Welfare Institutions in Lebanon
• YWCA

Public Institutions:

• Ministry of Agriculture

A biology teacher of public education left her job and started selling Kaak.  Omm Rabih from South Lebanon chose the Afeef el Tibi popular street as her place of business and kicked off her new career as a street vendor selling Kaak and other savory pastries.  Formely, Omm Rabih was teaching biology on a contractual basis in two public schools and was paid LBP 12,000 per hour taught for middle classes and LBP 22,000 per hour taught for secondary classes.  In addition to her low pay, Omm Rabih was paid once or twice a year at best.  Omm Rabih’s aim was to enable her children to complete their education.  She is the head of her household and needs to pay her monthly rent of USD 400 per month for a small dwelling located in the Southern suburbs of Beirut in addition to USD 200 a month for utilities.
Omm Rabih addresses the government in an article published in Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, saying that she has given up on teaching as she has had enough of being humiliated.  She simply wants to secure her livelihood but is aggravated by the situation of children who now roam the streets.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 23 March 2013