First unemployed, now opening Kaak and Maamoul shop

In the middle of her kitchen in Beti Lahia, north of Gaza, 20 year old Laila Debu sits on her kitchen table preparing the kaak and maamoul dough to prepare the Sunday clients’ orders on time.

Debu, a university graduate, has a hearing impairment. She can’t speak well but she makes the best kaak and maamoul as she received previous training from organizations that provide capacity training for the hearing impaired in Gaza Strip.    

To facilitate communication, the writer of this story brought an experienced sign language interpreter to learn more about her current business.

Debu states, “I previously trained on making kaak and maamoul and given the difficult economic status, I began thinking of starting my own business to cater to clients’ needs”. She couldn’t start on her own and so started looking for funding.  

While browsing social media, Debu read Social Developmental Forum ad launching its project for social and economic empowerment of people with disabilities through financially supporting their small businesses. She did apply and passed the personal interview stage.

Debu and a 100 other person with disabilities undertook two weeks of training on developing administrative and financial skills, professionally using digital marketing, and writing business plans with the help of a team of specialists in those fields.  

She was later chosen for the next phase along with 50 other candidates to take part in the “Step for Future” boot camp in order to write her proposal and present it to the judging panel. A sign language interpreter was assigned to help her throughout the training”

The judging panel chose her business among the 13 wining projects that would receive funding. “After signing the contract, I started buying the raw materials I need, a baking oven and some tools I need to make kaak and maamoul”, she said.

After Debu launched her business and began receiving customers’ orders, she felt that it was the first step to success that will enable her to begin independent work with an income that meets her needs. As for her aspirations, she said, “I hope to expand my clients list and my business and to open my own place for making kaak and maamoul”

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).