Fatimah Al Momani fought poverty with opening a small grocery store.

Life was tough for Fatimah Al Momani from the village of Sakhra, but she refused to live in the gutter choosing instead the mountain tops. Fatimah is the sole supporter of her mother and father. She was unable to complete her studies, so she had to stop at a secondary level education and face a life full of hurdles.

After finishing high school, Fatimah was not able to attend university because her invalid parents needed her income-earning power. So, she started a small grocery store in her village with a 2,000 Jordanian Dinars financing from the Development and Employment Fund. Unfortunately, the grocery store did not provide her with sufficient income because she is not proficient in commercial trade. The net profit from the grocery store was hardly enough to support her and her parents. But, at least, working at the story was easier than doing other types of work.

Fatimah heard about the “Start and Improve Your Business” program from her friends, and she quickly joined and learned a great deal about trade. She is now able to carry out an economic feasibility study of the project and how to improve it, and can do the accounting herself.

	With training from USAID, Fatimah was able to study the market needs and provide for its needs.

“The program taught me how to study market requirements and how to develop the grocery store, so I started selling household utensils in addition to food stuffs,” says Fatimah. “The program benefited me in that I started to think about developing my project. I learned how to identify local market needs, and I started carrying items that are needed in the village, which increased my sales,” adds Fatimah.

Thanks to the expansion in her business, Fatimah is now able to settle her loan easily and to make more profit, which has made her think about expanding her store further.

In addition, Fatimah’s personality has changed since she joined the program. She now has self-confidence, is successful, and capable of giving. She now owns a successful trading business, and through it she can improve her life and live a respectable life without needing anyone.

	Fatimah starts her day early to go to her grocery store, full of activity. She feels she can offer a great deal to her family, her village, and herself as well.

The “Start and Improve Your Business” is part of a training program developed in 1999 through USAID, the Ministry of Planning and the United Nations Development Program for a total cost of $500,000. A total of twenty training manuals have been developed, in addition to 14 practical manual supplements, designed on an interactive basis utilizing the self-learn method. The training manuals were divided into four components: The Simplified Method for Starting and Improving Your Project, Start Your Project, Improve Your Project, and Expand Your Project. To date, 27 trainers have been certified to provide this training.

In 2001, the Jordanian American Business Association (JABA) was appointed to oversee the implementation and coordination of the project, providing training and support services to beneficiaries through a number of local associate institutions such as the Jordan River Foundation, and the Center for Developing Small Projects at the Hashemite Fund for Human Development.

According to Hanan Ghannoum from JABA, by September 2003 the program had provided training services to about 1517 pioneers, some of whom have operating projects, and others who wish to start their own small and micro projects. Of those, 998 (821 women and 177 men) have been trained as part of a two-year grant provided by the Ministry of Planning to JABA (2002 – 2004).