Running Businesses and Leading Lives

Gaza Women's Loan Fund Empowers Palestinian Women to Excel

RAFAH | For Palestinian women, working to support a family is not only about earning a stable income but also about standing up to many challenges. With recurrent humanitarian crises, the growing economic crisis, and the increased number of female heads of households, the need to work, be productive and excel is critically important for women and their families.

Nawal Tantawi, 50, started getting loans from the Gaza Women's Loan Fund when the program began in 1995. With the money, she started importing consumer goods from Egypt to sell in a small shop in Rafah. "I travel to Egypt to bring goods," she said. "Sometimes I take my sons to help me," said Nawal. Starting a business is challenging-especially for women in Palestine. Nawal faced many difficulties to establish a successful business. By applying skills learned as a child helping her father, she has adapted and excelled.

When Nawal started her business, her husband, was a retired teacher from Rafah. "I started this shop to help my husband who supported me and our children. We used to swap shifts during the day and at night to run the shop," Nawal added.

Nawal's life reflects those of thousands of Palestinian entrepreneurs who cross the border into Egypt (when it is open) to bring goods such as toys, candies and biscuits-and occasionally over-the-counter medicines. Through the years, the unstable conditions have made many Palestinian families look for other sources of income to compensate for periods of unemployment.

The Gaza Women's Loan Fund, which ANERA has run since 1995, empowers Palestinian women. The loans, which range from $1,000 and $3,000, are used to support micro-businesses such as kiosks that sell clothing and household items, animal husbandry products for raising pigeons, rabbits and chickens, and home-based food processing.

Om Nafez Salama, 60, is a refugee in Rafah who has been a widow for 14 years. She borrows from ANERA's Gaza Women's Loan Fund to run a handicraft business that produces embroidery with traditional Palestinian motifs. "I decided to rely on myself the day I lost my husband," said Om Nafez who is raising her children on her own. "There are no other means to live, but the Gaza Women's Loan Fund gave me a chance to succeed."

Throughout the 11 years of the ANERA program, the borrowers have been pleased with their accomplishments. Nawal and Om Nafez both have achieved life-time wishes through perseverance along with their desire to succeed as well as the help they've gotten from ANERA.