A QRCS representative hands over a cow to a beneficiary under income generation programme in Iraq.
Doha: The representative office of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in Iraq is carrying out a project to support livelihoods for poor families in Iraqi Kurdistan.
With a total budget of $202,579, the 15-month project focuses on displaced Iraqis at and outside camps, as well as poor families from the host community.
The project is aimed at empowering internally displaced persons (IDPs) at camps, those out of camps, and the most vulnerable returnees, helping them to secure their basic needs such as health care, food, education, and other services.
Also, it seeks to enhance livelihoods by supporting agricultural activities, livestock breeding, and vocational training, thus creating a source of income for the beneficiaries and reducing dependence on humanitarian aid and passive mechanisms of adaptation.
To that end, the project involves enabling 31 non-camp poor women supporting their families to generate stable income and ensure safe and decent living conditions for their families.
Another component of the project is training for female breadwinners in 20 displaced families at the Bahirka camp in Erbil, to provide them with practical sewing skills. This will allow them access to basic services such as education, food, and health care.
According to the project’s action plan, the activities include conducting a field assessment of poor displaced families at camps in Erbil (Khabat district) and Dohuk (Khanke and Sharya towns), identifying beneficiaries based on eligibility, making a field assessment of poor and displaced families headed by women at the Bahirka camp (Erbil) and selecting beneficiaries of vocational training among others.
So far, sheep have been distributed to 20 non-camp displaced women in Khanke and Sharya (Dohuk) and 10 poor local women in Khabat. Eight of them received one dairy cow and 600kg of fodder each, and 23 women received three sheep, four hens, one rooster, and 225kg of fodder each.
