The Impact of Inclusivity

The Rehabilitation Centre Carpentry Workshop is loud with the humming and zipping of a buzz saw. Hassan remains focused. Although he cannot hear the buzzing, because he is deaf, he knows the workshop like the back of his hand. Hassan is responsible for every Sitti soap dish that comes through the workshop.
 

In 2020, Hassan and his team at the Carpentry Workshop produced a record number of wooden soap dishes. Due to the economic constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, the profit from Sitti’s partnership with the Rehabilitation Centre to produce soap dishes was the only source of profit for the workshop. “I earned a salary during the pandemic, but it was cut in half because most of the partners of the Rehabilitation Centre stopped their orders, except for Sitti.”

Hassan began working at the workshop in 2014, after completing his carpentry training in a city nearby. “Due to my disability, I could not get any job. I was relying on the money my family provided to me until I became employed in the Rehabilitation Centre in Jerash camp.”

As an ex-Gazan refugee living with a disability in Jerash camp, Hassan found training support and a job through the Rehabilitation Centre’s Carpentry Workshop. “I became financially independent. I became confident in myself because I have a job. It made me feel like a normal person, treated like anyone, regardless of my disability. Everyone here can understand me and I feel no shame because I am deaf. My wife is proud of me. I can meet
all the requirements of my family, and my financial situation is stable.”

The Jerash Camp Rehabilitation Centre (“The Community-Based Rehabilitation Centre,” “The Rehabilitation Centre” or “CBRC”) is a non-profit that works to integrate persons with disabilities into their communities, improve living conditions of disabled refugee persons and activate the participation of local communities in issues related to programs for the needs of persons with disabilities. The Rehabilitation Centre has been a Sitti CBO partner since 2016.

In 2020, Sitti directly supported the regular employment of 15 individuals through our partnership with the Rehabilitation Centre. Employed individuals included 3 refugees with disabilities who are Rehabilitation Centre program participants.

To learn more about the Jerash Camp Rehabilitation Centre and our CBO partnerships, please check out our 2020 Impact Report here.