Thalge succeeds in opening a Ministry-licensed kindergarten
Thalge is a young woman in her twenties living in Deir Al-Balah city in the middle of the Gaza Strip. She has a B.A in biology and suffers from partial visual impairment. After graduation, she worked in an educational center for 4 years and then worked as a private school teacher for a year.
Iman was seriously considering owning her own business up until a friend showed her the Social Developmental Forum’s ad launching a project supporting small businesses of people with disabilities. She applied and was accepted following the personal interview.
Thalge invested the summer vacation in the kindergarten. She focused on intensive trainings in administrative and financial skills development, professionally writing project proposals and digital marketing with the help of a specialists’ team. She received the training alongside a 100 participants of people with disabilities.
She was later selected with 50 contestants to write and present their businesses and try to convince the judging panel at the three day “Step for Future” boot camp. She was able to convince the panel and was among the 13 projects that received a development grant.
Thalge began looking for the right location for her business. She was able to rent a small kindergarten with a backyard in a quiet area in the middle of Deir Al-Balah. She equipped the place and brought in some toys for the new school year. She adhered to the terms of the Ministry license.
“The trainings had a lot of information on successful administration, digital marketing, and financial management. I didn’t fully have this information before and I can now notice the difference after training”, Thalge explains.
Iman talks about the importance of this project to her. “This project is my dream and it’s an important source of income to me and my family. Despite its current limited revenue, it can still provide for us”, she said
“Every beginning is hard. It’s true that I now have a limited income but that won’t stop me. I consider myself taking the first step into achieving my dream of expanding the kindergarten and opening another branch”, she continues.
Thalge’s dreams aren’t stopping. She is now thinking about equiping the kindergarten to care for children with disabilities enabling them to study alongside other kids their age. She also hopes to one day to able to expand the kindergarten and turn it into a private school so that her students can continue their education at the same place.
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).