Entrepreneurship’s innate ability to inspire those it reaches and instill within them a determination to succeed is exemplified within a group of Jordanian woman. Mr. Omar, creator of Sitat Byoot/”Women at Home” an online Facebook page that is used as “a marketplace for Arab handicrafts created by women”, saw an opportunity for the Arab world to be a part of the worldwide handmade industry. As a result of his entrepreneurial spirit and initiative, many Jordanian women are able to gain employment and support themselves.

One such woman is Ms Qouqas who recently became a single mother of three children, forced to support herself in a society that discourages female independence, education and employment. Ms Quoqas admitted, “I already had the passion and commitment to make unique products that cannot be easily found in shops”, where Sitat Byoot facilitated the opportunity to foster this passion and turn it into something tangible and lucrative.

However, like many social entrepreneurial ventures economic sustainability is a main concern for both the women and Sitat Byoot. Mr Omar admits that the absence of  “Social impact investors” warrants sustainability a major problem. It is without a doubt that the social impact of such an initiative outweighs the struggles of financial obligations a thousand fold. Ms. Qouqas expresses her hopes as she says, “I really want to believe that people will realize that this is part of our tradition and that women have talents and have always worked. They can contribute a lot to society”.

Original Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/middleeast/01iht-m01-jordan-women.html