At Child’s Cup Full, women of the West Bank in Palestine use their skills to create toys. The non-profit social enterprise creates economic opportunities for refugee and low-income communities. “At our artisan center, we train and employ talented women artisans to make beautifully handcrafted educational children's toys and other handmade products for the global marketplace,” reads the organisation’s webpage.
The initiative has recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough funds to train more refugees and women from low-income communities in Zababdeh, a small village in the northern West Bank. The organisation currently has six full-time workers and a number of part-time workers. They hope to expand their initiative to more communities by employing around 30 women by the end of 2016.
“We believe that with access to business opportunities, refugee and marginalized communities can thrive,” reads the website.
Child’s Cup Full was founded in 2008 as a student-led initiative in the US. Dr. Janette Habashi started the program with her students as a small fundraising initiative to support grassroots education programs for refugee children in the West Bank. The project evolved in 2011 when Habashi found that the programme could empower disadvantaged women. “We focus on training and employing women because we know that when you empower a woman, it has a ripple effect,” she says.
