Fellowship #7: Empower women refugees in Jordan through embroidery

Location: Amman, Jordan

Watch CRP’s video here!

AP’s partner in Jordan, the Collateral Repair Project, offers essential assistance to women who have sought refuge in Jordan from the devastating conflicts in Iraq and Syria. As part of this, CRP supports a collective, the Hope Workshop, where women receive training that will prepare them for life in Amman or a new country, after resettlement.

In 2016, Peace Fellow Allyson Hawkins helped Workshop members to describe their perilous journey through embroidered squares which have been assembled as quilts and shown throughout the US. The funds raised by her successor, Peace Fellow Reina, covered the cost of all Workshop activities in 2017, including embroidery. This enabled Workshop members to produce cards, calendars, and handicrafts for sale, as well as more squares. Our goal for this year is to produce two more advocacy quilts and sell embroidery in the US.

Working from Amman, the 2018 Peace Fellow will help all newly arrived refugees to learn embroidery, tell their story for new quilts, and produce embroidery that can be added to tote bags and sold in Jordan and internationally.

Qualifications

• A commitment to reproductive and women’s rights
• An interest in and experience of textiles
• A talent for story telling – blogs, profiles, photography and videography
• Actual or academic experience of business and marketing
• Work experience in the Middle East
• Arabic required.

For More Information

• Residents and Refugees Collaborate on Leros and in Amman (June 19, 2018) 
• The blogs of Reina Sultan (2017)
• The blogs of Allison Hawkins (2016)

The beneficiaries

Dhamya came with her family to Jordan from Bagdhad in 2013. She remembers feeling afraid when she arrived. “It was a new society. Dealing with people was challenging,” she says. She heard about CRP from neighbors and began coming for English classes. She became more and more involved in CRP activities, first with gender training and then with Hope Workshop. “I started to love myself,” she says. She wanted to meet new people from different backgrounds and learn about different cultures.

 

The partner

Amanda Lane is the Executive Director at Collateral Repair Project (CRP). She is an accomplished international development professional with extensive experience working in international community development, refugee relief, and the nonprofit sector in the Middle East, U.S., and Africa. At Collateral Repair Project, Amanda manages an international staff that provides emergency assistance and community-building services for urban refugees and impoverished Jordanians.

View more CRP photos.

The Peace Fellow

“I wish I could express in words how meaningful and formative my time with CRP was. AP gave me the opportunity to work with and amplify the voices of beautiful, resilient refugee women in Amman, Jordan. I urge everyone with the means and privilege to make change with an organization like CRP to seize that opportunity immediately. ” – Reina Sultan, the 2017 Peace Fellow in Amman.