In recent years there has been a remarkable development of projects that are interested in empowering rural women in Tartous Governorate, where government agencies, in cooperation with the local community, are carrying out training courses for women in various fields, including vocational and crafts education, as well as grants for small projects.

 

The Director of Social Affairs and Labor, Tartous Afra Ahmed, told SANA that the Directorate seeks to support rural women's projects in cooperation with NGOs and to provide grants for small projects that provide income for rural families and contribute to support women, especially the dependents of their families, in order to enable them to obtain a project that is commensurate with the nature of the area in which they live Where it makes it close to its habitation.

 

She added that the Directorate contributes through the Alton Al-Gareed Center for Rural Development to provide job opportunities and vocational training courses for women from the region. The center provides for the operation of about 100 workers in sewing and hand-rugs, in addition to training courses in various fields such as women's shavers, tailoring and others.

 

Many women in the countryside receive small projects that they manage and take responsibility for. Soad Ma'rouf oversees her small project, which was funded by a charity in the governorate and provides income to help support her family of 5 children.

 

Maarouf explained that her project is a gymnasium in one of the neighborhoods near the city, which came as a result of her knowledge of the need of the neighborhood for such a project, stressing that it seeks to develop it by increasing the number of devices used in the hall and providing some drinks for those wishing to visitors.

 

In turn, Ziad, who found herself a porter for her family after the martyrdom of her husband, received a grant from a small project in which she established a small shop in her village of Asqbala in Banias. She stressed that the circumstances forced her to seek a job to secure her household expenses after she was abandoned from her home in Damascus countryside. Expanding the project by providing part of the business profits to buy more shop supplies that suit the demands of its customers.

 

The story of Hajar is similar to the stories of many Syrian women who are the heads of their families after she lost her husband, who was martyred in the war, which prompted her to search for work that provides a source of livelihood for her and her family. A charitable organization contributed to her a project to raise a cow, confirming that the grant came at her request The type of work that is appropriate to the nature of the rural environment in which you live.

 

Bassem Mansour, coordinator of small grants projects at the Syrian Society for Social Development, asserts that the association contributes to the granting of grants of small projects ranging between 700 thousand and one million pounds for women heads of households and needy groups in different areas of the province. Economic feasibility, in addition to the continuation of volunteers to follow up projects for 6 months and provide the necessary support and advice for women to enable them to continue their projects.