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Special Reports

Interview 2

Kwhala A. Abu Ali, Participant,
Women’s Micro-Enterprises Start-Up Workshop

Amazed by Taiwan’s experience of providing guidance to
help women successfully start businesses

Gender equality has been an cooperative Plumbing and Energy was amazed at the effort of the
important issue in international Cooperative Society (P&ECS) government in terms of providing
development aid in recent years. in 2015. It now has 19 female advice to women entrepreneurs.
In the MDGs, promoting gender employees. She saw how the government
equality and empowering women In Jordan’s culture, the male implements related programs
was set as one of the eight main head of the household must be at according to the characteristics of
goals, as well as striving to solve home before a male plumber can female entrepreneurship, the stage
the problem of female poverty. In enter, which is inconvenient when of development and requirements
terms of women’s entrepreneurship, housewives are home alone and of their enterprises, providing
low-entry threshold and microcredit need to have the plumbing fixed. incubation courses, accompanying
are viewed as extremely important Female plumbers would be free from guidance and advice, business
strategies. this restriction, helping to save time opportunity expansion and matching,
In view of this, the TaiwanICDF and making it easier for housewives elite model selection, capital raising
specially planned the Women’s to access plumbing services. and other customized and integrated
Micro-Enterprises Star t-Up Spotting this business opportunity, services, giving her valuable lessons
Workshop. A total of 28 participants Khawla not only returned to the on the road to further developing her
from 23 countries were invited to workplace in middle age to become business.
Taiwan, including government Jordan’s first female plumber; she
officials responsible for micro, also brought many women to the
small and medium-sized enterprise occupation in her 10 years in the
development or promoting women’s business. After one year as the head
rights and executives of women’s of the co-op organization, she says
organizations. Taiwan’s experience in excitedly, “I want to shatter the myth
this field was shared through lectures that women can only stay at home
from experts in the area of women’s and cook food. Repairing bathrooms,
micro-entrepreneurship and visits to fixing leaks, jobs like this were done
related enterprises and foundations. by men in the past, but women can
The courses were focused do just as well, and it is no shame at
on women’s entrepreneurship all!”
theory, women’s entrepreneurship Through recommendation by the
guidance resources and women’s representative at the Commercial
entrepreneurship financing to Office of the Republic of China
provide allied and partner countries (Taiwan) in Jordan, she was able to
with reference for formulating attend the program. She hopes that
related policies and implementation the training she received will expand
methods. her knowledge of entrepreneurship
and allow her to lay a solid
Jordan’s first female plumber foundation on which to expand her
comes to Taiwan to learn from cooperative.
our experience In the two-week program, Khawla
One of the participants was learned from the experiences
Khawla A. Abu Ali, who founded the of many successful female
non-profit organization plumbing entrepreneurs in Taiwan. She

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