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Delicate hand-embroidered scarves, mats, and a variety of other useful household items sewn by women in Gaza will be on sale soon in Ottawa.
The items were created under one of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN) -Canada's assistance projects in Palestine. Every month, Palestinian women living in conditions of poverty and hardship, are paid a small amount of money for the elegant embroidered items they were trained to create.
The project is an attempt to offer women needed skills to help them sustain households where men are missing, unemployed or disabled.
“We are in desperate need from centres like this,” explains one beneficiary in a promotional video posted on the organization's website. So far, 146 women are part of the program, including several university students who use the money from their work to finance their education.
According to IRFAN-Canada, the women are paid around $100-$150 for their monthly work. The organization is hoping to recoup its costs by selling the items in exhibitions around the world.
The handicrafts will be available at the Muslim Summer Festival on July 14 at Brittania Park. People who miss the event can also contact IRFAN-Canada's local office to purchase items that would make beautiful Eid gifts, while also making a huge difference in people's lives.
IRFAN-Canada is also launching its annual Ramadan campaign hoping to raise $220,000 this year. The amount is far less than previous goals of $500-600,000 raised in previous years. However, the non-profit agency cannot issue tax receipts until it regains its charitable status, which it hopes to do pending its appeals to the Canadian Revenue Agency.
Along with building schools, homes, and offering food in places like Palestine, Pakistan and Somalia, the organization is sponsoring 3400 orphans.
The $220,000 the organization hopes to raise would be used to cover the cost of providing orphans with a single food package ($65), which includes oil, rice, lentils, beans and would feed about 8-10 people in the orphan's family for three weeks.
For more information on how to donate during the Ramadan campaign, or on how to purchase embroidered items, visit their website at www.irfan.ca.
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