Al-Aker: making a living selling pigeons
Sitting in the middle of a small room with two brick walls and two net walls, she put wheat and water to the pigeons that provide her income. She examines the birds to see if they need any special care incase they’ve fallen ill and she also keeps an eye on the eggs and the baby pigeons.
Nedaa Al-Aker from Rafah city south of Gaza is in her thirties and suffers from mobility disability due to a joint implant in her foot. She lives with her parents and siblings. Giving the family’s bad economic status, she thought of starting her own business to provide extra income.
“Before I stated raising pigeons, I was struggling because I couldn’t find a job to provide for myself, but now, I’m I spend most of my time taking very good care of my pigeons”, said Nedaa.
She adds, “a few months ago, a friend told me about a project for people with disabilities that can provide me with a small grant to launch my business. I applied and was accepted at the Social Developmental Forum”
Al-Aker did venture into the same business before but over time, she lost some of her birds which declined her income. She says, “I signed up for the project to develop my existing business by increasing production thus increasing income”
She and a 100 other person with disabilities from all over the Gaza Strip received intensive two week training in order to develop their administrative, financial and digital marketing skills.
Al-Aker proved herself in the initial training and moved on to the second phase along with 50 other participants. She got the opportunity to participate in the “Step for Future” boot camp, which enabled her to write and present her business to the judging panel to be later approved to the grant.
As for choosing raising pigeons, “I love the area I live in. There is a large demand and I have many clients”, she continues, “people started to know me through my business and I feel that I can prove myself to the community by working and providing my own income”
As for the training, Al-Aker notes that she benefited greatly from the information she received. She was unaware of most of this information before and that’s what made her lose so much in the past.
Al-Aker didn’t only rely on the administrative and financial information she received in the training, she is also looking for more information on pigeon breeding so that she can better master her work. She also came up with the idea of cooking the pigeons and delivering them all ready to customers. The idea found great appeal among clients and she aspires to continue and expand her business for her to be sufficient with its income.
It is noted that the project “Supporting the efforts of persons with disabilities to contribute to positive social and economic empowerment in the Gaza Strip is implemented by the Social Development Forum with funding from the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).