Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Recycling rubbish brings hope to women in Jordan

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Sameera al Salam folds a discarded piece of newspaper into a long strip then loops it round her finger to form a tight circle, the first stage of making upcycled handbags, trays and bowls the Syrian refugee hopes will help her earn a living.


Al Salam, 55, was a hairdresser before she fled her war-torn homeland for Irbid in northern Jordan with her family in 2012.


She has two teenagers and a husband left paralysed by a stroke to support in a country where she has no automatic legal right to work.


“We were living a really happy life. I had a garden where I grew everything,” Al Salam said.


“We had to leave because of the airstrikes.”


Like most of the more than 655,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan — and many Jordanians — poverty, debt and unemployment dominate the family’s existence.


Al Salam hopes her involvement in a new rubbish collection and recycling scheme that aims to alleviate the poverty of both refugees and locals and bring the two communities closer will help turn things around.


The scheme, managed by charity Action Against Hunger, employs 1,200 people to collect and sort waste from the streets and provides temporary work permits to refugees who take part.


Nearly half the participants are female.


One in three Syrian refugee households in Jordan is headed by women.


Awsaf Qaddah, a 39-year-old Syrian widow, said working as a rubbish collector initially felt like “a kind of shame”, but she now feels only pride.


“The job took me out of this atmosphere I was living in at home. Women can and should go out and work, especially with the circumstances we’re facing,” she said. “I have no husband or father or brother to help — I’m proud to do it.”


Fellow worker Berwen Misterihi, who is Jordanian, was forced to earn after her husband left her and their four children.


“Women and men would make comments about me picking up waste,” she said.


The project workers were given 50-day contracts paying 12 Jordanian Dinar ($16.90) a day, plus training and social security provisions. Some of the waste was sold to scrap dealers for extra cash.


Al Salam was among a group of women who started an upcycling project, turning the waste paper and plastic they collected into objects to sell. The women in her upcycling group meet regularly and share ideas in a WhatsApp group. — Thomson Reuters Foundation


Paula Dear


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