May 18, 2009 issue
Loans aid Palestinians in Jordan
By Gladys Terichow Mennonite Central CommitteePage:
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WADI RAYAN, Jordan — Every day Ratiba Abdula goes out to the garden to pick thyme.
Ratiba Abdula started growing thyme to supplement her income using a $70 loan. — Photo by Melissa Engle/MCC
She dries the leaves of this aromatic perennial herb in the sun and sells them in the local market. This provides her with a monthly income of $35 — a new source of income made possible through a $70 loan provided by the Wadi Rayan Women’s Benevolent Society through a fund supported by Mennonite Central Committee.
“Life has been bitter and sweet — mostly bitter,” said Abdula, a widow for 12 years. “Now that I have my garden of thyme, life is much sweeter.”
Abdula was 1 year old in 1948 when her family was forced to leave its ancestral village after the Arab-Israeli war.
Her family fled to the West Bank, under Jordanian rule at that time, and in 1959 resettled in the Jordan Valley through a United Nations resettlement program. About 75 percent of this community of 15,000 in the northern part of the Jordan Valley are Palestinians driven from their homes in 1948.
Abdula was looking for ways to supplement her family income when she heard that the benevolent society was starting a revolving loan fund.
Abdula knew there was a demand for dried thyme because she had occasionally sold small quantities in the local market. Dried thyme is used in a popular condiment called zaatar.
Her $70 loan made it possible for her to buy 3,000 seedlings and to hire someone to help her prepare the ground and plant the seedlings.
The revolving loan fund was established in October 2006 through a gift of $1,100 from a businessman in Amman, Jordan.
Abdula and 14 other women were the first loan recipients. They repaid their loans in $10 monthly installments, and funds became available for 10 more women to take out small loans.
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