Today, October 15, we celebrate the International Day of Rural Women, a date on which, from our Foundation, we take the opportunity to highlight the crucial and decisive role that these women play in promoting economic and social development, as well as in tackling extreme poverty, hunger and climate change.
Mariam Zakarneh is a clear example of this. Mariam lives in Jenin Governorate, in the far north of the West Bank (Palestine), an area where rural women suffer particularly from the harshness of unemployment, representing 41.2% compared to 17.3% of men.
In search of a solution
Mariam belongs to the Deir Ghazala Women’s Centre Association and says that since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, “we have not had any opportunity to help us generate organised income for our association or create employment for women”. Faced with this situation, they set out to identify a suitable and viable project that would allow them to promote rural employment and development for these women and, thus, take advantage of the fact that “our village is considered the best for planting vegetables”.
Motivated by the need to cope with the effects of the economic crisis in the country, as well as to play an active role in their communities and contribute to family income, these women organized themselves and ended up participating in the project we developed in Jenin, Palestine, in collaboration with our local partner Rural Women’s Development Society (RWDS) and with the financial support of the Generalitat Valenciana.
The aim of this initiative is to promote the right of access to work for rural women in Jenin, contributing to equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, as they play a central role as agents of economic and social change. To achieve this, work is being done to improve their socio-economic prospects by strengthening cooperative work in its productive, financial and commercial dimensions.
Some improvements and ideas for the future
Through their participation in this project, Mariam explains how, so far, they have already achieved important objectives such as reviving the Deir Ghazala women’s club, creating employment opportunities for women, generating income, or the involvement of some institutions that already work with the association.
She also reveals that “there are ideas for further developing the project by creating new employment opportunities for women.” She also explains that the centre’s work is expected to be expanded and diversified and the search for sources of support for women is to be expanded. In this sense, Mariam and her colleagues aim to promote the creation of collaboration networks with local authorities to further activate the decisive role of women in the rural development of the region.
“This project has helped us to show the role of women in our village and their decisive participation in agricultural and economic activities.” On the other hand, she highlights that this initiative has also meant an opportunity to improve and strengthen collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and with local authorities.