Expo funds Caritas Jordan project providing work for
refugees
(Vatican Radio) A new project
providing work for Iraqi refugees in Jordan will be inaugurated in the capital,
Amman, on Thursday May 12th by the undersecretary of the Pontifical Council
‘Cor Unum’, Mgr Segundo Tejado Munoz.
The project will be funded by
money raised by the Holy See’s pavilion at the Milan Expo which took place from
May 1st to October 31st 2015. Pope Francis personally requested that the
150.000 dollars, collected through visitors’ donations, should go directly to
the development scheme entitled ‘Promoting job opportunities for displaced
Iraqis in Jordan’.
Caritas Jordan will oversee
the launch of the project which guarantees a regular income for 15 Iraqi
refugees and their families, employed in making preserves, as well as the
production and sale of oil and vegetables.
A further 200 refugees will
be offered professional training in carpentry, agriculture and food technology,
while another 500 will be given temporary employment throughout the year.
After the first six months of
funding by the initial donation, the project is expected to support itself
through income from the sale of the produce.
The project was presented and
approved by ‘Cor Unum’ as a direct response to the Pope’s desire to help the
most vulnerable people suffering from the effects of the conflicts in Syria and
Iraq.
Jordan currently hosts around
130.000 Iraqi refugees and over 1.3 million Syrians who have fled from the
fighting in their country – and those are just the numbers who’ve been
registered by the United Nations.
The director of Caritas
Jordan, Wael Suleiman, noted that despite the efforts of the local Church and
of various government authorities, it remains extremely hard for refugees to
find regular work.
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