The beauty of life does not lay on the beam ends. The beauty of life does lay on the pursuit of the path for beams. A long time has passed since graduation. The wish for having a decent job like all graduates was growing bigger day after day. Alas, no vacancies were in hand as the situation in Gaza has been dramatically deteriorating. What added insult to injury was her movement impairment. However, determination and self-development were the clothes of Areej Abu Mualiq in her cloudy days.

27 years old is the age of Areej Abu Mualiq from the Gaza City. She has grown up with 8 persons in a middle-income household. Searching for a job that could satisfy her desire as a graduate from the Basic Education Dep. In 2015 was the ultimate wish. But, a long-term volunteering work was the only choice, though, she has not got any.

” Hesitant I was about the vocational training. However, I passed the interview,” she willingly said

She spent years working in volunteering work, yet she has never felt any sense of relief and containment. On the other hand, the thought for vocational training was difficult to swallow even though her mother’s solid abetment was frequent when IUG Irada Center offered free vocational-training courses.

The idea itself has scarcely leaped to her mind, for she had known plain things about sewing and more than that she aspired to be a teacher! By the time, thinking over this has taken another direction. Good chances were available at IUG Irada Center. Sewing could be a good choice. So, she made her mind and, ultimately, enrolled at Irada Center for six-months training.

Passing the interview successfully opened her appetite to experience something new, however, her disability was an obstacle. Anyway, she gave a try for the matter of sewing. She initiated her training doing small designs from the material offered by Irada. Gradually, she noticed the difference. As much as her right hand has never capable of holding things due to impairment, as much as her left hand has been deployed of capability and creativity, thanks to Irada training.

Since she defeated her hesitance, she has been sewing clothes, making cut and plot in addition to making patrons and other related- sewing staffs by holding Irada’s material with only her left hand. The practical training at Irada Center has turned her life upside down but in a good manner. Skillful she became, and to get a high spirit was her aim. The more achievements have done; the more happiness rises in her way.

The skillful left hand of Areej has easily made complicated things that the right hand of sound people could not probably do. She has managed to recycle old clothes for the first trial, yet she has been developing her skills to design dresses for little girls and clothes for most her relatives’ ladies, all stemmed from her private creativity.

” I’m so delighted to see my own work gets easy on people’s eyes when I once got dressed my hand-made clothing in a relative occasion’.

When Areej was asked about her breakthroughs’ source of inspiration, she proudly answered, “My family was my foundation and my support”. Meanwhile, she has no longer felt her impairment appalling as much as before thanks to Irada Center that let her roll in the same-persons community.

The basics of sewing that Areej had been taught in Irada is now being transferred to her mother. However, her mother has kept her skills for her children, Areej is looking forward to opening a store filled with clothes from her own production.

This opportunity has been offered to Areej through the project of “Employment of Women and Youth in the Gaza Strip”, which implemented by Irada Center for Rehabilitation and Vocational Training for Persons with Disabilities, with generous fund from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and under the auspice of the United Nations Programme UNDP/PAPP.