“My life changed when I started work in this women’s center,” explains Lulu, a Syrian woman living in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Working together with other refugee women, she is sewing babies’ clothes. The clothes are distributed to the mothers of children born at the camp, in the same way as Finnish maternity packages.

Lulu is one of the 10 000 women that have benefited from the women’s centers established by UN organizations and supported by Finland. The four centers established in 2014–2017 provide work, income, legal support, training and hope for women exhausted by displacement, poverty and violence. The women participating in the activities are experiencing less violence. They say that the activities have made them more self-confident and independent. At the same time, the women have received training in life skills and maternal health. The centers provided work for 150 women in 2017.

Photo: Miriam Azar, graphics: Juho Hiilivirta