Remarks at Signing of Two Grant Agreements to Support Women's Programs for Palestinian Refugees

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for joining us today.

It is my great pleasure to grant these awards from the Ambassador’s Fund for Refugees in the Middle East. They total $40,000. They will help two Women’s Program Centers expand their range of services to two of Jordan’s largest Palestinian refugee communities.

The United States established the Ambassador’s Fund two years ago. The goal is to enable U.S. embassies to quickly meet refugees’ needs that are not being addressed by UNRWA, UNHCR or our other major partners.

The United States is UNRWA’s largest single contributor. We remain committed to supporting its invaluable work. But we are also excited by the opportunity to support the grassroots efforts of Palestinian refugee communities.

We received many excellent project proposals from groups in Jordan this year. We are pleased to announce today our choice of two projects submitted by Women’s Program Centers in The Baqa’a and Wihdat Camps. Both Centers’ projects are designed to provide services that were missing in their communities.

The first project is a $20,000 grant for the Baqa’a Women’s Program Center to establish the first Internet café to serve the women of the Baqa’a camp.

It will offer exposure to information technology to women and girls. The income generated by the Internet cafe will help support the child care and vocational training services that the Baqa’a Women’s Program Center runs for their community.

Our second grant, also for $20,000, is to help the Wihdat Women’s Program Center expand its legal aid office. It will be able to start to offer legal services and training to 10 other refugee communities in Jordan.

We applaud your efforts and look forward to continuing to work together to assist Palestinian refugees in Jordan.