Amman, Jordan – August 20, 2009 – The Community Based Support Program (CBSP), funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM) and implemented by International Relief and Development (IRD) held a thank you lunch at the Dead Sea to honor and thank their partners, Noor Al Hussein Foundation and Entity Green Training while highlighting achievements from the past year.

High level representatives from the partner organizations were greeted by IRD and CBSP staff members. In addition to passing out appreciation plaques, each group spoke about their experiences working on the CBSP program, and what their group took from the experience.  It was evident that the experience was positive, and that a partnership was built, and each group was able to reach their goals through common dedication and support. 

The goal of the CBSP program, which started in September 2008, is to provide opportunities for social activity, income generation, and vocational training for Iraqi refugees and other vulnerable persons, and to work with their communities to give hope and improve social and economic well being. CBSP reaches the Iraqi refugee community in Jordan through IRD’s extensive outreach network and helps to reduce the stress on individuals and families that results from extreme social isolation and economic hardship.   

At the CBSP supported Ein Al-Basha Vocational Training Center, managed by the Jordanian company Entity Green, over 600 men from the Iraqi refugee community and from the local population have graduated from the intensive 3-month vocational training courses.  These courses include construction, computer hardware and software, mobile phone repair, electrical installation, gardening and landscaping, painting, plumbing, automotive maintenance, and catering.  Men are also being trained in recycling, and the center is working with several institutions in Amman to sort and recycle glass, paper, and plastic.

These vocational training courses have given the men practical skills to enable them to obtain employment or work for themselves in the future.  At Ein Al-Basha men find an environment that is encouraging and empowering, while reinforcing their desire to rebuild their lives and support their families.

CBSP also supported the training of over 300 women in home food production and marketing.  These activities were implemented through collaboration with both the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF) and Entity Green.  NHF afforded the refugee women with the necessary skills to contribute to their family’s income with a small home based business, providing training that allowed the women to master the preparation of traditional sweets, savory pastries, and pickled products for sale within their local communities.  Entity Green then provided basic marketing training and linked the women to numerous different community marketing networks to further sell their home food productions. 

In addition to the Vocational Training and Livelihoods activities, CBSP supported 15 community based day care organizations subsidizing the costs of child day care for vulnerable Iraqi families as well as provided over 100 young mothers with a training course in early childhood development and child caretaking, linking the trained mothers to the day cares for 4 month internships.

With the large success that CBSP achieved during the 2008/2009 year, BPRM approved a second year of increased funding for the program.  The CBSP-2 program, starting in September 2009, will expand to train 800 Iraqi and vulnerable men in the construction trades, 300 additional women with more intensive home food production and marketing training, and the introduction of the alternatives to violence program which will raise the awareness of youth, at-risk populations, and victims of violence in healthy alternatives to violence through programs of community building and peer health and relationship education.