More successes women achieve the more benefits society will get
“Empowering the Syrian women socially, economically and psychologically, enhancing s their self-confidence and creating job opportunities helping to improve their living conditions are top priorities of our committee because we believe that empowering women would empower the entire society and can have many positive results on social, economic and other aspects of life”, Head of the Businesswomen Committee at Homs Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Afaf El Hassan told the Syria times e-newspaper.
To shed light on the objectives and activities of the Committee, Mrs. El Hassan said: ” since its very beginning in 2001, the Business Women Committee of Homs Chamber of Commerce spared no effort to support the capacity building of women to enable them take the right choices to improve their family’s socio-economic conditions as the Syrian woman has proved throughout history that she deserves to take a leading role in all areas of life and to prove her distinguished presence in Arab and international forums.
With regard to the activities of the Committee in these days after the crisis, most of our attention is focused on the means of empowering and supporting the Syrian women who were badly affected by the war to face strongly the difficulties and to regain confidence in their abilities to overcome the repercussion of the crisis, improve their socio-economic statues and start a new life.’’
Mrs. El Hassan went on to say: “ in 2016 we organized the 1st Marketing Exhibition of Handicrafts, where we presented hand-made works by a group of ladies. For them, the exhibition was a market to display and sell their products and a great opportunity to prove to themselves and to the others that they are able to gain money from their works and that was the desired purpose and the main aim of the exhibition. The results of the one-week exhibition were more than fantastic for both the participants and visitors that were reflected by the great support of several associations and interested bodies. This encouraged us to organize the second and third marketing exhibitions in 2017 and 2018”.
“ Among the Committee’s other activities were holding a number of educational and awareness symposiums that help women, psychologically, to be stronger and remain steadfast to overcome their bad living conditions especially when they become the only breadwinners for their families.
Mrs. El Hassan clarified that the 1st Cultural Week was also one of the activities that the committee has recently held to discuss a number of socio-economic, medical and legal issues in which the most accurate details of women’s concerns were discussed.
“ With the aim of helping women to have their own project , the Committee has also carried out, in cooperation with the local development office in the province, a workshop on Producing Domestic Mushrooms. Through this workshop we try to guide women to start small projects in their homes, using the available resources and the simplest means . We asked a number of volunteer agricultural engineers to help participants to apply practically, step by step, what they have theoretically learned during the workshop. Women were also provided with all the tools and equipment they were in need to start their projects. We are now waiting to see the result of our efforts, which we hope will be successful,” she stressed.
“In this context, the committee members are working hard with Homs Chamber of Commerce and all the interested parties to expand this project to include the whole of Homs countryside because adopting such a project will help to dedicate this important agricultural culture in our society on the one hand and consolidate the self-confidence culture that will enable the rural women creating job opportunities to improve their living conditions on the other hand”.
“This workshop was very positive for the participants as they overcame the fear of taking the first step. We were their helpers and supporters in each step on their way to success,” Mrs. El Hassan concluded .
Amal Farhat –Homs