Yousef Hassan is a 26-year old Lebanese husband, father, and entrepreneur. Before starting a small mobile phone business, he struggled to find a good job. Physical and speech-related handicaps kept a stable income seemingly out of reach, and he relied on his parents for their support. Although Yousef was working hard to keep his business afloat, he was unable to cover both personal expenses and the cost of maintaining sufficient mobile phone charge card inventory. Less inventory meant fewer profits. Yousef was at an impasse. Through the Siraj center, Yousef attended training workshops that helped him improve his financial management skills and marketing abilities. He also learned best practices for effectively growing his clientele and diversifying his products.

With the knowledge he gained, and the small business grant he received, Yousef was able to stabilize his business. He expanded his product line and he began offering repair services, as well. Following this, his income grew to more than 17 USD a day.

Asma grew up in the outskirts of Amman, married young, and gave birth to five children in quick succession. Life as she knew it changed dramatically when her husband unexpectedly passed away and Asma found herself entirely responsible for providing for her children. Asma always had a special talent for creating toys for her children out of old or broken items around the house so thought why not turn this skill into an income. With help from the training, Asma developed a formal business plan and was awarded a cash grant to help her buy the supplies she needed to improve the quality and increase the number of her products.
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Through the training, Asma was able to learn how to correctly price her items (taking into account the cost of her raw materials, time, and transportation) and deal with customers. She also gained a sense of community by being connected to such an encouraging group of women.

Rashedeh, a Palestinian Jordanian, lives with her sister and niece and is their sole provider since the death of their brother a number of years back. Rashedeh started out as a seamstress when she was just a child and continued the work for thirty years until her father became ill. Throughout those years, she experienced low pay and poor working conditions and hesitated to return to a tailoring operation following her father’s death. With the knowledge she gained at a Siraj center, Rashedeh developed a comprehensive plan for a tailoring business, which was quickly approved to receive a project grant for 650 JOD (915 USD) to get started.
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Already having a reputation as a skilled seamstress in her community, Rashedeh developed a client-base quickly. With the steady increase in clients, Rashedeh has been able to hire a couple of family members to help her meet demand.

From the hallway outside of Fatima’s apartment, you can hear a cheerful symphony of chirps coming from within. Prior to 2012, these chirps would have been coming from the chicken farm that she and her husband ran for more than 15 years in their homeland of Syria. Now, with her husband’s health failing, Fatima and her son have developed a small chicken hatchery operation that consists of a large incubator in their family’s kitchen and a tiny coop for newly born chicks out on their apartment balcony.

“I went to the training and the smile came back to my face again. While I was following the training, I felt that I could socialize again and that it was a real possibility to run a small business and support my husband and family.”