The economic crisis in Lebanon has been ongoing for the past few years, with the Lebanese Lira continuously losing its value. As a result, salaries in Lebanon have lost their utility and purchasing power, which has caused several households to become unable to purchase even their most basic human needs. Affected more than anyone, are those working in the public sector and specifically those in the military - along with their families.
Military salaries currently range anywhere between 1,320,000 LBP to 3,900,000 LBP. With the current exchange rate, this means that military officers working in that sector are only earning about 46 to 135.6 dollars. Keeping the current prices of basic resources and nutrients in mind, these men and their families are not given a chance to live a decent life.
Prices of food and beverages have skyrocketed by 374.48 % up until May 2022, and a great deal of families in Lebanon still rely on only one source of income due to several reasons.
Similar to most countries and specifically in our region, women are traditionally expected to marry and work within their homes. They are never provided with opportunities or environments that give professional and fulfilling work and occupations.
Both international agencies and local organizations have been implementing many activities targeting the empowerment of women, specifically within the economic aspect. However, we believe that more support is needed, specifically resources and opportunities that target military members along with their wives and children.
At Qarama, we believe in empowering people from within and giving them the power to control their own situations, through skills and opportunities. We stress that this excludes charity and handouts consisting of financial resources or nutrition.
This is most especially important in households where the entire family is dependent on just one low-wage income. Considering this, we should be empowering the main constituent of the family, the women, to both learn and develop useful skills and generate an independent income through their own production.
For this reason, Qarama is implementing a new project titled AWEE (Akkar - Women’s Economic Empowerment) to nurture, train, and empower 75 women from Akkar district, who will then in turn teach approximately 340 additional women, making it a total of at least 408. These women will be provided with resources, training, and ongoing support to learn different skills such as cheese making, egg production, chicken breeding, as well as aquaponics farming.
This project aims to directly empower these women by encouraging and supporting them with the relevant resources to take control of their own skills and financial course, to the best of their abilities. This is the type of individual and community focused and long-lasting solution that Lebanese families need at the moment. Instead of supporting them through unsustainable and short term solutions, we should be providing them with the right opportunities and environments to take control of their lives. Even more importantly, women should be included as the center of our interventions, just like they are the center of our families.
This project has been made possible through the financial aid of our dear friend and supporter, who prefers to be left anonymous. His contribution was $50,000 USD, and an independent financial audit will be released on our website once the implementation has concluded.