Topic: Economic Justice

Imelda, a 64-year-old vegetable farmer in Lemery in Iloilo, shared that farming has been part of her system. She learned it from her parents when she was ten years old.

Onurina Ikikoyi cannot recall the exact date she delivered her tenth and last-born child. However, she remembers the joy she felt after giving birth to the only girl-child in the family.

When Akur Anyang Thuch (33) from Panyagor started a tailoring course, her friends and close relatives thought she was out of her mind. Five years down the line, Akur looks back with pride. She now owns her own tailoring shop and teaches other women from the community how to make clothes. However, her road to success wasn’t without some challenges.

Fareeha fled to Jordan in 2012. To cover her family’s basic needs, she started her own business

Asmaa and her two sisters work hard to provide for their families. After fleeing from Syria to Jordan, CARE’s vocational trainings helped them build up their own business.

Asma had nothing when she fled to Jordan from Homs. Now she is known for her dishes all over Amman

Ala’a is a 35-year-old tomato grower, his farm nested within the Jordan Valley in northern West Bank. Over the past nine months, through support from CARE, Ala’a has established a demonstration tomato greenhouse that follows safer pesticide practices to fight against fungi, viruses and insects.

Afaf was the first farmer and woman to grow baby cucumber in the West Bank. She is now recruiting her own staff to help the business grow. Fa’eda’s eggplants have been tested and CARE is facilitating the provision of the certification which will allow her to sell her products at a higher price. Nisreen is the breeder of fifty sheep and goats and - according to the locals – “the best of the Jordan Valley when it comes to producing homemade white cheese."

This is not a story of a one-man show facing the world, the all hail Caesar type. This story is unlike in fiction with having to go through a stereotypical plot of transition from a protagonist to hero/heroine. I wouldn’t say this is a sad story either. This is simply a story of an empty jar that is NO longer empty.