Development and Humanitarian work around the world, Paul Calvert spoke to Valentina Clementelli at their office in Jerusalem

Paul: Is there a lot of poverty in the West Bank and the area you work in?

Valentina: Indeed, the current political situation and the occupation, especially after the wall has been built, strongly impacts the everyday life of the communities we work with. The opportunities provided by the job market are a few and with most of the land under Israeli control there are no real possibilities for the expansion of economic activities. Even in front of this situation, the strong bonds in Palestinian society often create safety nets that are at least helpful in letting people having trust in their communities.

Paul:Do you help with needs in crisis and emergency?

Valentina: As an organisation we are not specialised in emergencies, as you have understood by our vision we believe far more in development as a long and stable process with the person at the centre. Nevertheless, when emergencies occur we do not step back and lend a hand towards the communities we support. As an example, we have worked on the educational emergency in the Jordan Valley, rehabilitating schools and providing education and awareness on gender based violence.

Paul: Tell us about your work with the disabled?

Valentina: First of all, we prefer to talk about "people with disabilities" - putting the person first and the disability as an external particular condition - since we think that the shortcomings they face are not part of their inner being but that of an external environment unable or unready to satisfy their needs as a person. We think that the language is very important to start to think about these members of the society in a different way. This is also part of our work with them and the society as a whole to promote their rights to have the same opportunities to work and live a decent life. Our programs addressing the disability issue, which we implement in partnership with the experts of Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation, have always a strong component on advocacy and awareness-raising for the PwDs and their families firstly as well as for the society in general, with a focus on the companies that shall become their employers under the framework of our economic empowerment mission. In fact, we try to empower and equip them with tools and resources to face the job market challenges by training them to enter the formal employment or helping them starting up small business. In the framework of an ongoing project we are providing them with training centred on business management followed by individual coaching sessions to design business and feasibility plans propaedeutic to receive micro-loans to start their businesses activity. Indeed, for a significant part of them the self-employment is deemed the best solution. In a year and a half we have been able to help more than 80 PwDs start a business of their own.

Paul: Do you set up support projects to get people into work?

Valentina: All of our projects have a strong component of introduction to the job market. We believe that the natural outcome of our idea of education should be helping people understand their role in the society, something that becomes practical and concrete through a profession. For this reason either Mustaqbaluna, Secialitaly, but also Pro.Ed. have the common goal of opening real career opportunities for our beneficiaries.

Paul: Do you work to promote gender equality?

Valentina: Gender equality is a cross cutting theme that we always have in our projects. For example, while selecting our beneficiaries we always make sure to have a proper balance between males and females and to collect a set of information based on dis-aggregated data. In addition, the prevention of violence against women is at the core of our values and preoccupations, that is why in a past project on the educational emergency in the Jordan Valley we have provided school girls with a proper course on GBV.

Paul: Are there a lot of barriers to break in the West bank?

Valentina: I would say that the reality of the West Bank is pretty diversified, in general though, keeping our eyes on our core interest, disability, I can say that the barriers to be broken are many. In particular, the person with special needs is considered as someone to be hidden and unable to be of any value to the society. This happens especially in small rural villages, but it must be noted that things are changing fast and from the Palestinian community itself. In fact, thanks to the invaluable work of local partners like BASR the perception is slowly but steadily changing.

Paul: Are you making a difference?

Valentina: This is a very hard question, because Palestine is a place where it is very difficult to see real changes compared to others context. A real impact of changes is difficult to estimate although I believe we are making important progresses and at the end of the day working here it only requires a different mindset based on patience and perseverance.