Gazans have measure of new career opportunity

GAZA－Hussam Abu Kashif, a 20-year-old refugee from Jabalia Camp, is among dozens of unemployed Gazans who anticipated jump-starting their own careers in the fashion industry through a comprehensive training program.

"After weeks of intensive and continuous training, today I am able to design both menswear and women's clothes … I find myself talented in drawing and fashion design," Abu Kashif said while sewing a jacket.

Five months ago he heard that the Aya and Khalil Fashion House in Gaza was opening the courses. He quickly enrolled.

"I joined this course in order to find a job, especially since I was not able to get a job related to my university major," said the novice designer, who is aspiring to open his own business to support his family with sufficient income.

Tahani al-Hour, another trainee from Khan Yunis city who has experience in making clothes, said she was happy to be given a chance to learn new skills.

"I learned here how to supervise the production, especially as I am exporting them to Palestinian communities abroad," the 40-year-old mother of six said.

For many years before the imposition of the Israeli blockade on Gaza in 2007, thousands of highly skilled Gazans had sewing jobs at Israeli fashion companies that export to Europe.

But nowadays local markets are packed with imported clothes that are exorbitantly priced, whereas clothes produced in Gaza can be sold at a more competitive price, said Khalil Khudair, co-founder of Aya and Khalil Fashion House.

"Tailors usually rely on ready-made designs that they get from the internet or Israeli companies. We lack professional and talented designers who are able to compete with them," Khudair said.

Khudair said the courses, which can take at least 14 weeks to complete, teach locals from drawing models for dresses or formal outfits to sewing and the final production.

As many of the trainees are financially strapped, the fashion house offers large discounts on tuition fees, so the students can be better placed to launch their own businesses.

A report issued by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights in February found that 1.5 million Gazans live in poverty due to the Israeli blockade, with an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent by the end of last year.

Xinhua