During the last week of February, Dua’a Barahmeh, NAFE’s Project Coordinator, made multiple visits to one of our community based partner organizations, Al Sheikh Hussein Association. The organization is located in the small town of Al Sheikh Hussein, which lies in the northern part of the Jordan River Valley. The Association engages with the local community by housing orphaned children, providing the materials and resources for local women to produce sweets to sell, and hosting NAFE workshops about economic empowerment.
That week, NAFE had organized one of the economic empowerment workshops for a group of men and women in Al Sheikh Hussein. These workshops are led by academic and professional experts and use interactive methods to teach participants about financial responsibility, problem solving, and building personal confidence and abilities. Each day has a primary goal, such as developing business ideas, setting S.M.A.R.T goals, identifying personal strengths and weaknesses, and finding realistic solutions to common obstacles, among other things. The days are broken into sessions that address secondary goals that contribute to the primary one. These sessions often begin with a quick presentation by the facilitator, which is then followed by work in smaller groups, and they end with the smaller groups presenting to the other participants.
NAFE is proud to support community based organizations like Al Sheikh Hussein Association, which shares NAFE’s aim to serve local communities, build civil society, and enhance the economic capacity of all members of society. Looking around the room during these workshops, it is clear that participants are excited to be engaged in learning how to grow their ideas and themselves!
