Association Najdeh (AN) (جمعية النجدة الاجتماعية in Arabic, Arabic najdeh="relief" or "aid") is a

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

involved with

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

and

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

projects in

Palestinian refugee camps Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. It operates more exactly in and around the

refugee camps A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peop ...

. It defends the Palestinian refugee women who are often victims of discriminations and also participates in different campaigns, in coalitions of local and international organizations, for the right to work in Lebanon and the right of return to Palestine.

History

The association Najdeh was founded in 1976 by a group of independent Lebanese women and men to secure immediate income to Palestinian refugee women in particular after the movement of Palestinian family to the camp of Tel-Za'atar. An initial work of embroidery was organized and generated an income, then a day-care center and a workplace for the women was created. Finally, in 1978, the Najdeh association was registered to the Ministry of the Interior as the independent Lebanese social and non-governmental organization (

) with headquarters in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. Between 2005 in 2006, the association Najdeh elaborated a Code of conduct, intended to strengthen the role of the

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Burj el-Barajneh camp, by institutions with Islamic trend. It has been recently mobilized during the conflict in Nahr el-Bared camps of May, 2007 to bring relief and assistance to residents of the camp. The association Najdeh organized

demonstrations Demonstration may refer to: * Demonstration (acting), part of the Brechtian approach to acting * Demonstration (military), an attack or show of force on a front where a decision is not sought * Demonstration (political), a political rally or prote ...

in all the regions of the Lebanon, on April 30, 2009, for "the right to work campaign of the Palestinian refugees in the Lebanon", in particular with Palestinian-Lebanese coalition's commissions, after having published a report on the contribution of the

Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war (1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War (1967 Palestinian exodu ...

to the Lebanese economy, in January, 2009, thanks to funding from aid agencies (Diakonia and Christian Aid).

Objectives

The main purpose of the association Najdeh is to empower women in the Palestinian community because they are a most severely disadvantage component of the Palestinian refugee community. The improvement of the role of the women in the Palestinian community also concerns their economic, social and educational role.

Profile

The association Najdeh organs consists of: a General assembly, an Administrative Bureau elected by this Assembly, members of the Executive Board assigned by this Administrative Bureau. The General assembly is 70% of women and 30% of men. The administrative board has progressed over the last few years from only female members to a fifty-fifty female/male division (6 members). The staff is primarily women and members of the Palestinian refugee community. Eighty percent of the beneficiaries are women and Palestinians, while the remaining 20% are men and individuals of other nationalities. The association Najdeh operates on 26 centers in and around

. Its programs focus directly on the women and include:

vocational training Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an in ...

Program, Popular Education and Tutorial Program, Mother and Child Program, Social Affairs, Domestic Violence Program, microcredit Project, and Embroidery. It also defends the rights of the Palestinians by activities of raising awareness on subjects such as the health of the reproduction, the rights of the woman and the rights of the child. The programs of the association would touch up to 10 000 refugees, in all

palestinian refugee camps Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian ...

, including camps Burj el-Barajneh, Nahr el-Bared, Shatila, Beddawi, etc.

Core values

The association Najdeh has personal core values that it intend to promote: a community committed to the Palestinian

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...

, a belief in the importance of

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, of

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...

and of

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

. As a member of the

Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International (HAP International), established in 2003, was the humanitarian sector's first international self-regulatory body. A multi-agency initiative working to improve the accountability of humanitari ...

(HAP International) since August 2009, she believes in the values of PAHs based on transparency and accountability.

Funding

The association Najdeh has several sources of funding. The

donations A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as b ...

are a big part, their origins are multiple: mainly funds from donor organizations and individuals from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, and from some partners present in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The other sources of income are: incomes from the production of embroidery, fees for students in professional training program and those for program of women and children.

References

External links

*
Official web-site
{{Authority control Non-profit organisations based in Lebanon Civil rights organizations Foreign charities operating in the State of Palestine Refugee aid organizations