Economic empowerment programs for al-Hol returnees limited by lack of funding

RAQQA — Umm Ali (a pseudonym) sits at her sewing machine in the small space she has set aside for her business at her house in al-Mansoura, a town in the southwestern countryside of Raqqa province. Around her, customers wait to have their measurements taken or receive their orders of women’s abayas and dresses. 

Over the summer, the 36-year-old was one of 75 women who completed a sewing course run by Oxygen Shabab, a civil society organization in Raqqa that provides programs for women returning from al-Hol camp. 

Al-Hol, a detention site in Hasakah province for the families of Islamic State (IS) members, currently holds around 49,000 people, 94 percent of whom are women and children. Thousands of detainees like Umm Ali have been released in recent years under tribal sponsorships and returned to communities in northern Syria. 

At the end of the sewing course, 22 women were selected to receive financial support to launch their own small businesses, but Umm Ali was not one of them, she told Syria Direct. Instead, she set up a canvas partition to convert part of her one-room house into a workshop. Through her sewing, she hopes to become self-sufficient and provide for her daughter and sister, who she lives with. 

While she runs her own business, Umm Ali still struggles to pay her $50 monthly rent, which for her is “exorbitant.” She divides her profits with the owner of the sewing machine she uses, since she could not afford to buy her own. 

Umm Ali has been in al-Mansoura for three years since leaving al-Hol under a tribal sponsorship program. Her husband was killed in an airstrike south of al-Mansoura in 2017, leaving her responsible for earning an income without the support of relatives and acquaintances. 

Between 2018 and 2021, around 3,000 people—900 families—left al-Hol for Raqqa under tribal sponsorships. In September 2023, 360 more people—96 families—were released. Most of those returning are women and children.

Since women began to leave al-Hol, local and international organizations worked to design programs to support and reintegrate them into their communities. Poor economic conditions and scarce job opportunities have stood in the way, prompting donors and organizations to focus on economic empowerment programs. These initiatives aim to finance small businesses to help returning women achieve self-sufficiency. 

Oxygen Shabab works to economically empower returnees, displaced women and women from the host community in al-Mansoura alike through a multipurpose community integration center. Its program launched in early 2024, and will continue through the end of March 2025, director Bashar Karaf told Syria Direct. 

Of the center’s 450 beneficiaries, 40 percent are returnees from al-Hol. Services include “business literacy courses, in-kind support for women-run economic projects, literacy and numeracy education, recreational activities and daycare for children under the age of six,” alongside protection and psychosocial support, Karaf said. 

Work and integration

Work helps women returning from al-Hol achieve financial independence and build trust with their neighbors. Relationships established with the host community strengthen women’s sense of belonging and help them overcome the stigma of coming from a camp designated for IS families. 

“Work helps returning women mingle with the community. Through it, a person can define herself,” Umm Ali said. As a seamstress, she has been able to “build a network of relationships,” she said. “Women and girls from neighboring towns started to visit me.” 

Without this outlet, Umm Ali would remain “in a spiral of thinking, or be forced to ask [for support from] this person or that person, and nobody gives without expecting something in return,” she said. “Work keeps me busy and gives me self-satisfaction, because I do what I love and make a living with my effort.” 

She hopes to obtain support for her business to buy a sewing machine, cutting table, steam iron and solar energy system. These items would let her save the portion of her profits she pays to the sewing machine’s owner, who takes “two thirds of the profits,” she said. Solar power would reduce her fixed expenses, as she currently pays SYP 100,000 (around $6.50) for a subscription to an ampere generator network.

Umm Ali is not alone in her work, as her income also supports her sister, Umm Yusuf (a pseudonym). Umm Yusuf was injured by a landmine explosion in Raqqa in 2019 that caused her to lose an eye and altered her facial appearance. The 40-year-old has undergone long treatments and restorative operations for her facial injuries, but still struggles to stand on one of her feet, she told Syria Direct. 

Umm Yusuf helps her sister by cutting fabric and ironing garments, “simple tasks that I have somewhat mastered,” she said. 

In August, Umm Yusuf joined another training held by Oxygen Shabab. Her sister participated too, this time as a volunteer sewing trainer. 

The first phase of the training focused on empowerment and capacity building, while the second phase, set for March 2025, includes practical training alongside in-kind and advisory support for launching business projects. Umm Yusuf hopes to receive financial support at this stage. 

However, Oxygen Shabab cannot finance all the projects of women participating in the program, Karaf said. He expected just 20 women—10 percent of the participants—would receive support. 

Support for some

In July, Umm Muhammad, 38, and two of her sisters received $5,000 in funding from Oxygen Shabab to open their own business in al-Mansoura: a small supermarket. 

She believes her chances of obtaining the grant “hundreds of women wish for” were higher because she applied for funding with her sisters. 

Umm Muhammad, 38, a returnee from the al-Hol camp, stands with an Oxygen Shabab employee inside the store she and her sisters opened in al-Mansoura, Raqqa with the organization’s support, 26/9/2024 (Oxygen Shabab)

Before opening their store, Umm Muhammad and her sisters worked making and selling homemade preserves—such as jams and pickles—to Raqqa residents. With their new business, they felt they opened up to their community, building social relationships while earning a living, Umm Muhammad, a mother of one, said. Her sister Umm Abdulrahman, a 32-year-old mother of three, agreed.

Like other “al-Hol women,” Umm Abdulrahman felt that completing the training and opening a business helped break their isolation, “forging social relationships as well as securing a sufficient source of income,” she said. 

At the same time, many returnee women have not received training or funding for small businesses. Umm Lubna (a pseudonym), who left the camp in 2021, currently relies on “benevolent people” to cover her expenses and pay for medical care for her mother, who suffers from diabetes-related foot problems. 

Umm Lubna embroiders and makes dolls, and hopes to obtain a financial grant to start her own business and no longer need to rely on others. She has registered her information with the Social Welfare Center for returnees—part of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) Social Affairs Committee in Raqqa—but no organization has contacted her to provide support. 

“A lack of funding leaves us unable to support all the ideas and projects women heads of households submit,” Karaf said. He acknowledged that efforts to support returnees are still modest compared to the number of women who meet the criteria for support. 

In an effort to fairly distribute the funding it has, Oxygen Shabab’s criteria for choosing projects to support include “professional experience in a certain field, to ensure the success and sustainability of the funded project,” Karaf said. Beneficiaries must be literate, with a “project that meets the local market’s needs and can fund itself through sales and profits,” he added. 

“Vulnerability criteria” are also part of the assessment. The organization prioritizes “women-led families, larger families, and families led by women with special needs—or in which one member has special needs,” Karaf said. 

“Economic empowerment efforts for al-Hol returnees are still very modest,” one humanitarian activist in Raqqa city told Syria Direct, asking to remain anonymous due to the nature of his current work. Ideally, such initiatives “should address two aspects: first, capacity building, vocational training and knowledge development; second: restoring livelihoods and strengthening economic resilience through small and medium-sized projects,” he said. 

In reality, “we find that the community returning to Raqqa often get the first aspect—capacity building and training” but do not receive funding, the activist said. “Financing for small and medium-sized enterprises is not on donors’ agenda.”

Funding for Syria as a whole has fallen, “and northern Syria in particular, especially following many crises and disasters, from the Ukraine war up to the Gaza and Lebanon wars,” the activist said. “Syria is no longer a priority for donors.” 

Women returning from al-Hol and the organizations that support them also contend with “community rejection and lack of support for women’s small businesses,” Karaf said. This impacts many women, “who cannot leave their homes to work under the pretext of mingling with men.” 

Umm Ali hopes that the local community and organizations will “support and empower women returning from al-Hol so they can stand on their own and face difficult economic circumstances,” especially since “many are struggling in life after losing their support, taking on the roles of a man and a woman at the same time.” 

This report was produced in collaboration with Oxygen Shabab as part of Syria Direct’s Sawtna Training Program for women journalists across areas of control in Syria. It was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.