Jordanian woman weaves success story of empowerment with crochet business

AMMAN — Dania Ahmad, a 35-year-old Jordanian woman, weaved her own success story with the aid of a Royal Court project that supports self-employment of the youth.

As part of the Productive Youth Initiative, launched by the Royal Hashemite Court in 2019, Dania received training and started her own crochet project where she makes dolls, baby clothes, blankets, home décor and more.

Dania was among the beneficiaries of the Productive Youth Initiative who showcased their products to Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania on Tuesday.

 “The Productive Youth Initiative helped me to improve my products, as well as to come up with new ideas for new products for the constantly changing market,” Dania told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

The initiative supported youth to formulate new business ideas as well as those who already had a project and wanted to expand it. The initiative also aimed to make mergers of similar small projects, which “helped us make up new products that benefited all involved,” Dania added.

“My project is based on wool-knitting and crochet. From wool clothes and scarves, to blankets, home products and dolls for kids, we make it all. This business is my sole source of livelihood,” Dania noted.

As part of the initiative, participants receive training on best promotional and marketing practices, which reflect strongly on their businesses, Dania explained.

“We further learned how to promote our products online and how to create a website for our respective projects, which were of immense help. As a result, my business was little affected by the pandemic, thanks to our strong presence online,” Dania said. 

The Productive Youth Initiative gave the trainees the opportunity to exhibit their projects/products at Dar Nemeh in Amman’s Jabal Luweibdeh area and other locations, and work is under way to build partnerships with the private sector to market them further.

According to Dania, the training expanded her products reach across the Kingdom.

As part of the initiative, Dania, having developed her own capacities, started training new participants.

According to the Princess Taghrid Institute for Development and Training, which had a role in the implementation of the Productive Youth Initiative, 35 young Jordanians have received training in the first phase to enhance the quality of their products in line with international standards and to market them online.

 “I gave other women training on crochet and knitting, which was great. My plan is to continue training in this field and break barriers to entry for other people such that starting up is not as difficult for them as it was for me when I started,” Dania highlighted.