Jordan have housed an alarming 1.2 million refugees since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. This has subsequently impacted both refugees and the resident population. With increasing levels of unemployment and limited resources, many Jordanians in rural areas are extremely vulnerable. Therefore, living below the poverty line with a high rate of unemployment.

Short-term humanitarian and longer-term developmental responses are needed to assist vulnerable populations in Jordan. These will be solutions to help lift them out of poverty.

Providing Barber shop vocational training for local Jordanians A sustainable project supporting

With lack of support for Jordanians battling against poverty, we stepped in again in 2019. International Waqf Fund provided support to local communities struggling to maintain a livelihood.

We identified nine of the worse-affected areas in terms of unemployment in the central and southern regions. We then provide vocational training in barbering and how to run a successful business. In total, we helped to establish nine fully-equipped barber shops.

This project has successfully provided opportunities for young men to start their own business, enabling them to live a stable and dignified life. As a result, the project has provided long-term economic support for families. Therefore, enabling parents to send their children to school and protect them from the risk of child labour.

Meet Safwan

Safwan is one of the beneficiaries of this project, he’s 19-years-old, suffers from chronic health issues and as a result left school early. His family have a very limited income and therefore, Safwan has little opportunities.

This project has allowed Safwan to learn new skills, gain confidence and become independent. After two months of training, Safwan has moved onto serving real customers. With this new-found independence, Safwan is no longer reliant on his father.

Safwan now feels as through his life has a purpose and he wants to further his knowledge about the trade he has chosen. He hopes to enrol on hair-cutting and further training courses.

Today, the barbershop is a meeting place for the area’s local residents, who come to the shop to socialise in the evenings. This project was made possible thanks to a grant provided by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, the International Waqf Fund, and the Masar Al-Khair initiative.

When you donate International Waqf Fund, you help to fund emergency relief projects like these. We transfer all the donations we receive into low-risk Sharia-compliant investments. Once these accrue profits we use part of these profits towards bettering the lives of families in need through difficult times. We take some of your profits aside and reinvest them back into our fund to ensure your donations continue generating more income for years to come.