Five women launching “Colorful Strings” for Handicrafts

Five young women in their twenties meet in a small room that they rented from the hand in hand center in Gaza. They have a sewing machine, a cupboard containing their raw materials and in the middle, they set up a large table they gather around to finish their handcrafts, which hang all over the rooms.

Fedaa Al-Wadia, the group’s coordinator who has a M.A in education works alongside Kifah Al-Sersawi, Najah Habib, Samah Al-Shandi and Khoulod Al-Deeb who all finished high school and have a mobility disability. Together, they formed their “Colorful Strings” team making beads accessories, crochet dolls, and other handcrafts.

Several months ago, the girls enrolled in a project with the Social Developmental Forum, which aims at social and economic empowerment of persons with disabilities to start their own business. They were all accepted and received training in developing their administrative and financial skills alongside a 100 other person with disabilities.

Al-Wadia says, “We all used to work in one center together but each of us had her own talent. When we finished the initial training with the Forum and qualified for the second phase, we decided to form a team giving that our ideas are similar and connected”.

The five girls felt that uniting in one team would increase their chances of qualifying for the final stage and receive funding for their integrated project. Indeed, after attending the “Step for Future” boot camp and professionally writing and presenting their project to the panel, they were among the 13 winning projects.

Regarding their participation, “Considering the lack of capital or funding, we didn’t think of opening our own business to use our talent to make a living, but when we knew about this opportunity, we each had her own idea but at the end, we came together and became a team”, said Al-Wadia.

She points out that after passing the first stage of trainings; they focused on gaining information and skills from the small business specialists. “Without the two week intensive training, we wouldn’t have been able to write our project, do a market study or run the project once established”, she notes.  

As soon as they signed the contract, the girls began renting a work place, buying materials and then setting up social media pages to showcase samples of their work and get customers. They succeeded in getting many orders for birthday parties and baby showers’ accessories and decorations.

When talking about the importance of the project to them, Al-Wadia states, “Some of us couldn’t find a job in the past to provide for ourselves while others worked on temporary positions. However, this project is the beginning of a full business that could eventually provide us with a steady income to support our families and ourselves, especially in the current difficult economic status in the Strip”  

She continues, “This project is also a first step into believing in ourselves and our talents. It allows us to prove ourselves to the community through our talents and works which we sell to customers. We hope to expand in the near future”.

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).