USAID-funded project launched to help minorities break into job market USAID-funded project launched to help minorities break into job market

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Karwan Faidhi Dri 
Steve Fagin, the US Consul General in Erbil, speaks to Rudaw at the launch of the Building Economic Empowerment for Minorities (BEEM) in IKR project, January 23, 2020. Photo: Rudaw TV

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in Erbil on Thursday for the opening of a USAID-funded empowerment project to provide training to minorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) and the Nineveh Plains.
 
Building Economic Empowerment for Minorities (BEEM) in IKR “aims to build economic empowerment for minorities in IKR and Ninawa Plains to increase the chances of employment for people in these communities,” the Catholic University in Erbil (CUE) said in a statement on Thursday. 

The project was first announced on November 11 following coordination between the CUE and the US consulate in Erbil. 

Two learning centers in Erbil and Talsqof will teach English and Kurdish languages to the region’s ethnic and religious minorities as well as business and computer skills “so that they can get good jobs [and] so that they can compete in the job market,” Steve Fagin, the US Consul General in Erbil, told Rudaw during the ceremony.   

“This is just the latest example of our cooperation with the institutions here in Erbil and Kurdistan Region,” he said. 

“This is a very important part of our effort to help vulnerable populations in the [Kurdistan] Region, to help people return home, to help people stay in Iraq and not feel the need to migrate abroad because they can get jobs here in Iraq.”

This is the first time USAID has directly funded local organizations in Iraq, Fagin said in a promotional video back in November.  

The target communities are those “devastated” by the Islamic State (ISIS) conflict since 2014, Fagin said. Nineveh province is home to Christians, Kakais, Shabaks, and Yezidis, who were attacked and displaced by the jihadist group, declared territorially defeated in December 2017. 

Darine Rassam, marketing manager at CUE, told Rudaw English that 200 students have been selected for the project and the trainings will start next week. 

The courses will continue until August. BEEM will then help its graduates secure jobs.  

 

https://www.rudaw.net/english/lifestyle/23012020