Vulnerable Women Expand Economic Opportunities with Cash-for-Work Program

Dressed in fluorescent orange vests, a group of Syrian women refugees walks through one of the many neighbourhoods, known as blocks, of Jordan’s largest and most established refugee camp, Za’atari. Armed with gloves and bin bags, the small group of women fans out across the streets and gather plastic bags and other litter strewn around the block. The women are part of ACTED’s cash-for-work program and provide crucial waste-collection services to the estimated 79,500 refugees calling the camp home.

In exchange for maintaining camp cleanliness, the women earn an additional 20 Jordanian Dinar (JOD) , or 28 USD, per week to supplement their monthly 20 JOD allowance provided by the World Food Programme. The camp, established in 2012, is now approaching its fifth anniversary, and many of the camp’s residents have seen their savings shrink due to low employment opportunities and Jordan’s high living costs.

A single woman and the head of her family, Islam has worked in ACTED’s Cash for Work program since the inception of the pilot project in late 2015. She now leads a team of eight women, all of whom are single mothers or heads of households, to ensure that the block in which they live is clean. “For me, the extra income is very important, my mother is sick and the extra money I receive doing this work allows me to support her,” she explains.

For Abdelhamid Naimi, ACTED’s project manager for solid waste management in Za’atari, the project has been a huge success.

But after community discussions and mobilisation explaining the employment opportunities, the project quickly expanded and is now the largest employer of women in the camp.

The project has, however, not been met without resistance.

In order to change the community’s negative perception of women working in the streets, ACTED organised numerous community meetings and discussions, highlighting that vulnerable women needed additional income in order to support themselves.

Islam and her team claim that harassment has steadily decreased over the year but that occasionally they still receive degrading comments from passers-by. Asimi understands that the situation is not perfect but maintains that conditions have improved over time and that ACTED will continue to work towards changing community perspectives. A recent assessment study revealed that nearly 90% of women were satisfied with their work. As one of the cleaners in Islams team put it, “This job is very hard for us but it is better than begging.”

With 90 women now employed under ACTED’s program, Naimi aims to reach gender parity this year.