Women empowerment projects shine at Youth Pitches initiative

AMMAN — Three Jordanian youths took it upon themselves to introduce innovative projects to increase women's participation in the labour market. 

Their efforts paid off after winning the first three places in the Youth Pitches initiative on Thursday, which was launched by the CPF and the Arab Youth Centre (AYC) in August and held for the first time in Jordan and for the fourth time on an Arab level, under the slogan “empowering and enhancing the economic role of women”.

The event was attended by HRH Crown Prince Hussein and UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Vice Chairperson of the AYC Shamma Bint Sohail Al Mazrouei.

The Youth Pitches initiative, in its Jordanian edition, aims to showcase young Jordanians’ talents, investing in their skills and abilities and supporting them in turning their innovative ideas into projects that contribute to Jordan’s progress.

The first prize went to the “Threads Initiative”, which was pitched by Bassma Nazer with a focus on empowering women and raising awareness about certain topics such as gender-based violence and early marriage as well as using their skills to produce goods they could sell and benefit from.

“Our focus is on women who are not allowed to work from outside their homes,” Nazer told The Jordan Times.

Every embroidery set sold supports another set for a girl in the camp, and this creates a unique bond between the girls in the camp and our customers, Nazer added.

Threads Initiative also focuses on creating partnerships with women in refugee camps to produce product lines and sell them worldwide to increase their income and enhance creativity, according to Nazer.  

The future goal for the project, she said, is to expand the idea to other refugee camps to target women in need.

She expressed pride in receiving the award in the presence of Crown Prince Hussein, who supported this initiative.

"This is an important moment for us because it will encourage us to work harder and expand our activities to include more women and introduce more production lines, which will eventually reflect positively on their communities," she added.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Batikhi, founder and CEO of Bilforon application, a technology company focused on developing tools and applications for managing and analysing online food orders, described his second place win as a victory for women's economic empowerment in Jordan.

"Our application allows women to cook from home and sell their products to consumers using smart technology. Most of the customers of the start-up are working parents and catering companies," Batikhi told The Jordan Times.

"I came up with the idea after realising that many women have business potential but lack the right tools and resources to develop and grow their business and skill," Batikhi said, adding that Bilforon provides a delivery service for home cooked meals in Jordan.

“Through Bilforon, we are helping women and girls in improving their livelihoods. They are now able to make life-changing decisions thanks to the income they receive from working with us,” the Bilforon founder and CEO said. 

Future plans aim to expand "our network outside the Kingdom and to increase the number of women in the application from 200 to 500 by 2020", Batikhi stressed. 

"Prince Hussein's presence today is a great support for me and all the youth in Jordan. This will encourage us to continue to become innovative and think of pioneering projects that benefit our society and its economy," he added. 

“Safaa” Company for Home Maintenance clinched third place and its representative Lelas Daama said the idea behind the company was to train women in the plumbing profession, since "we live in a conservative society and women prefer not to allow strangers into their homes".

"We trained some 560 women to become plumbers in a bid to introduce them to a much-needed profession that would serve their peers and at the same time break social barriers regarding this profession," Daama told The Jordan Times.

Daama added that the idea is to empower women socially, financially and psychologically within their own communities.

"We strive to be the bridge that would encourage women to enter the labour market and assume unconventional jobs," Daama stressed.