Pilot project provides work for Syrian refugees, Lebanese hosts

A soon-to-be-opened leather products manufacturing workshop in northern Lebanon is part of a wider plan to create jobs for Syrian refugees and their host communities, Lebanese officials told Al-Mashareq.

The Akkar Centre for Care and Development in Jdaidet el-Qaitea–Beit Haouch began the pilot project in January, with a modest grant from a Saudi citizen to the Lebanese Ministry of State for Refugee Affairs.

The centre is a subsidiary of Dar al-Aytam al-Islamiya, a governmental social welfare institution, and the project is part of the ministry's efforts to urge the international community to support similar initiatives.

The goal is to enable refugees to manufacture products they need instead of importing them from abroad, while also creating a large number of jobs.

The leather goods workshop is still in the pilot phase, Dar al-Aytam al-Islamiya public relations director Rania Zantout told Al-Mashareq.

"A number of youth are currently undergoing training on operating the equipment and the manufacture of leather products, after which the Syrian refugees will be brought on board," she said.

"We hope the workshop will have a positive impact on its workers," she added.

Akkar hosts a large population of Syrian refugees, she said, and suffers from a lack of economically viable development projects that can contribute to improving standards of living.

Projects that can create jobs

The leather workshop pilot project began with a $5,000 donation from a Saudi citizen in support of Syrian refugees, Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Mouin al-Merehbi told Al-Mashareq.

"We used the money to furnish the workshop with equipment as an experiment that could be built upon later, through establishing small workshops for the manufacture of products needed by displaced [Syrians]," he said.

The ministry will review the extent of the workshop's success in achieving its objectives of serving refugee and host communities, he added.

The findings will be presented to donors to persuade them to "divert some of their aid to the establishment of such workshops for the refugees", he said.

The opening of small workshops "creates job opportunities for the refugees and Lebanese, and boosts local trade through the purchase of raw materials from the Lebanese market", al-Merehbi said.

The items will be sold locally, he added, and this also means they would not need to be imported from abroad at a high cost.

Other ideas under consideration

The ministry is considering a series of ideas for projects of this kind and their feasibility, al-Merehbi said.

It will present those with the most promise to potential investors, he said, with the goal of opening workshops in areas where there is a high concentration of Syrian refugees.

"This idea emerged in our talks with the Saudi and UAE ambassadors in Lebanon, who have asked more than once about vital projects that can be implemented to help the refugees and host communities," he said.

They have responded positively to the ministry's suggestions, he said, and "now await the earnest ideas we will present upon examining the results of the leather products manufacturing workshop".

Al-Merehbi has won international support for the use of a portion of the aid provided to Lebanon towards the establishment of economic and development projects to employ Lebanese nationals and Syrian refugees, economist Jassim Ajaka told Al-Mashareq.

"Creating employment opportunities for Syrian refugees allows them to support themselves with their own jobs," he said.