Income-Generating Handicraft Projects
The Foundation started its economic empowerment efforts by focusing on the improvement of status of women in underprivileged areas through three Income-Generating Handicraft projects: the Bani Hamida Women Weaving project, the Jordan River Designs project, and the Wadi Al-Rayan project. The nature of the intervention of the Foundation was reflected through providing women in these areas with employment opportunities while reviving a traditional cultural practice.

At the time these projects were established, employment opportunities for women in underprivileged communities were non-existent; employment for women was something unheard. The role of women was only to stay home to attend to family matters. The Foundation utilized handicrafts production as a mean to employ women from their homes while building on existing skills and resources, preserving cultural heritage and responding to the cultural barriers exerted on working women.

The three Income-Generating Handicraft projects of the Foundation focus on training women to help them supplement their families’ income. These projects, under the Jordan River Foundation, are run as small businesses where the Foundation has a major role in the management, operations and marketing of these projects. The production process is the only activity that is being run by the local communities, however, the Foundation’s staff closely monitors it. These projects, in addition, do not have a separate legal entity from the Foundation.

As these communities overcome the challenges of cultural barriers, and members received several technical and managerial training, these projects are managed by the beneficiaries themselves with minimal supervision from the Foundation. Currently, participation, innovation and sustainability are the main underlying themes in these income-generating handicraft initiatives.

Direct beneficiaries and local community members are constantly receiving capacity building and training sessions on topics that include project management, accounting, bookkeeping, marketing and conducting feasibility studies. JRF facilitates these initiatives further through providing design services, quality control, raw materials and marketing support due to the remoteness of the projects’ sites.

Within the coming year, JRF plans to hand over the income-generating handicraft projects to the direct beneficiaries. However, due to the nature of these projects, the local community will continue to benefit from the support services of the JRF Design and Marketing Department. This exists in order to ensure the ability of community-based products to compete in existing markets. The department offers ways to package, promote and sell products. It is also responsible for the various exhibitions held to promote these products, including JRF’s annual exhibition held in July under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. In 2004, JRF participated in the regional PRODECOM project, an initiative of the Paris-based Mediterranean Fine Arts Chamber, aiming at preserving and promoting arts and crafts in the Mediterranean region. Another successful initiative is the partnership of the Jordan River Designs Project with CosmoQueen in 2005. CosmoQueen, a project established by renowned Dutch designers, contracts with over 100 women from JRF’s Al-Karma Center to produce luxurious shawls sold worldwide. Such activities initiated by the Design and Marketing Department define and sharpen these products and enhances their marketability.

While challenges remain, local residents have taken over most aspect of project leadership and have also become leaders in their communities – in the recent municipal elections, the project manager of the Bani Hamida Weaving project was one of the six women nationally elected to local councils. 

Today, our high quality traditional hand-made items with a contemporary flavor are sold worldwide and featured in prominent home-furnishing magazines and publications. To view and purchase our handicrafts, the products' gallery on the Foundation's website boasts a wide selection of items that is being developed to allow e-commerce.