Iraq: Helping widows and disabled people start small businesses

20-03-2013 Photo gallery

People with a disability in charge of a household, as well as female breadwinners, face extremely harsh conditions in Iraq. The ICRC offers grants to help the most vulnerable start small businesses. Beyond the economic impact, it helps them restore their dignity by making them feel useful and needed in their communities. Kirkuk, in the disputed territories in the north of Iraq, is currently one of the cities most affected by violence.

- Seniya, with her four daughters and her youngest son holding a picture of his late father, in the living room in their house in Neda, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Kirkuk. Since 2009, after losing the family breadwinner, they have lived in extreme poverty.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01116
Population racked by heavy burden of decades of conflict, activities in Iraq in 2012
- In 2012, Seniya received a pregnant cow from the ICRC. Soon afterwards it gave birth to a calf. She still relies on the help of her neighbours. "But I feel my life is changing," she explains. She plans to sell the calf and buy another cow. Her dream is to move to a better area and open a grocery shop.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01115
- Ahmad (45), lost both legs in the Iraq-Iran war, in the 1980s. In 2010 he started a small business as a mobile blacksmith, with the support of the ICRC. He worked hard and was soon able to open his own workshop in Ruba, a neighbourhood south of Kirkuk.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01117
- His business was good enough for him to make his brother, Mohammed, a partner. Ahmad is now able to send all of his five children to school. However, business has been dropping off and Ahmad is now thinking about redirecting his business towards PVC
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01107
- Internally displaced during the war, Taha (27) lost both his legs in a mine explosion. With the support of the ICRC he started a rudimentary grocery shop with a basic set of products. Gradually his shop became a social centre for internally displaced people living in Huzeyran. "Nothing feels better than owning your own business," he says.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01112
- Taha shoots to score during a friendly wheelchair basketball game at the ICRC-supported physical rehabilitation centre in Kirkuk, where he plays in his spare time.
  © ICRC / IQ-E-01110
- Previously a construction worker, Ahmed (24) lost both legs in a car accident. Every day he goes to the Kirkuk physical rehabilitation centre, where he plays basketball and practises weightlifting. In 2009, Ahmed won a gold medal at the weightlifting National Championship in Baghdad.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01111
- Two years ago, with the support of the ICRC, Ahmed opened a mobile phone card stand near a football pitch in Wasiti neighbourhood, south of Kirkuk. "As I was there every day, they agreed that I could look after the place." He takes care of the maintenance and administration of the football ground. "Nothing could make me happier than working independently."he concludes.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek
- Ensam moved to Kirkuk with her two young children after her husband was killed in the sectarian strife in 2007. Supported by an ICRC grant, she opened a grocery shop in Huzeyran, south of Kirkuk. “Although people are very poor,” she says, “there is no other grocery shop nearby and so business is good.”
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek
- Thanks to the shop Ensam can now support her two children and is even able to help others, which makes her very proud. The most important thing has been the social change in her life. “Things change when an international organisation like the ICRC shows interest in the lonely life of a widow,” she explains.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01114
- Mother-of-four Fatuma lost her husband in a shooting at one of the checkpoints on the road from Kirkuk south to Hawija. Left on her own, she suddenly had to take over her husband’s role as the main breadwinner, on top of her own role as a mother.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek
- Fatuma started her own cotton- and wool-processing workshop, building upon her previous work experience. In time, Fatuma became very busy, offering her services to the people in the southern districts of Kirkuk. Asked about her free time, Fatuma laughs and says: “Now I have to make a schedule to manage nearly every minute of my day!”
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek
- Shireen, supervised by her mother Galawesh, sews a red dress. Galawesh, a widow since the early nineties, has been running a sewing workshop with her oldest daughter since 2012 in Kirkuk’s Runaki neighbourhood. Although they had very little experience with sewing, they developed gradually, gaining the trust of their customers.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01108
- A young boy looks out the window while his mother, who came to collect her newly- sewn dress, chats with Galawesh and her daughter. Galawesh’s sewing workshop has been especially busy with the approach of of Newroz, the Kurdish New Year.
  © ICRC / P. Krzysiek / IQ-E-01109

Iraq: Helping widows and disabled people start small businesses

20-03-2013 Photo gallery

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