Why women in this Lebanese refugee camp opt for trade, not aid
A group of Syrian and Palestinian women from a refugee camp in Lebanon transitioned a struggling project into an enterprise that aims to export around the world.
As she carefully picks up the colors she wants to use, Amna, 61, says that she never thought she would get into embroidery.
Back in Syria, she ran a beauty salon that she had to close when the civil war started. When she was eventually relocated to the Shatila refugee camp in southern Beirut in 2013, she decided to enroll in an embroidery training.
Five years on, she is still embroidering. Today, her job is embroidering a young girl, with a flowing mane of hair, on the back of a jean jacket. The girl will appear in front of a view of Shatila camp. The jacket is likely to be sold overseas, which would have been unthinkable only a year ago.
“We are like a family here,” Amna told Al-Monitor, as she introduced a small group of her colleagues at the Shatila Studio workshop.
