Hala Abdel Khaleq, 25, has been living with a muscular dystrophy disease since birth. She has also attained her education goals and is now a rights activist and social work volunteer.

Wheelchair user Hala said she faced many challenges in her life, especially with regard to society’s attitude towards her status as a person with disabilities and to her ability to access basic services, during her school and university education. 

"Many schools refused to accept me. At university, the campus was not disability-friendly and it had non-stop construction work,” she said.

About two years ago, Hala earned her bachelor’s degree in management information systems (MIS) and started working with relief agencies in Azraq refugee camp and other places. She provided psychological assistance and counselling to persons with disabilities and their parents. In parallel, she tried to build up her own business with a focus on the rights of people with disabilities. 

She called it "Rafeeq” (‘friend’ or ‘partner’) and began the work on developing an application that would serve as a platform and support hub to connect persons with mobility impairment, auditory and visual disabilities with the assistants available at the time of need and in the closest place. The software provides other accompanying services, including sign language interpreters and counselling. 

According to Hala, these services will be offered by trained and qualified assistants accredited by the company she is now establishing, which "Rafeeq” will be a part of. 

"This ensures the maximum efficiency and quality of the services. It also provides the maximum benefit users can receive, which will be measured through the tracking system that the application provides,” she said. 

Hala said her award-winning "Rafeeq” application was supposed to be launched in June 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  She said that her larger company will also be called "Rafeeq” and will be majoring in providing counselling services for people with disabilities and for their carers.

 Hala attended a specialised skill-based training with CARE International in Jordan on business development and entrepreneurial mindset building. It focused on creative thinking techniques, feasibility study development, market analysis, marketing, negotiation skills, among others. 

"The 40-hour training course has improved my business knowledge and cultivated my negotiating, problem-solving, and persuasion skills,” Hala said.

The training, Hala said, was inclusive of people with disabilities and helped her reach out to the right stakeholders and partners. 

"The training has really helped me enrich the content of ‘Rafeeq’, which I plan to launch in April 2021,” she said.

"I was trained on how to present my project’s concepts and objectives and convince others of its value, workability, and contributions to facilitating the lives of people with disabilities,” she added.

Hala said that her dream is to see "Rafeeq achieving a quantum leap” in the services provided for people with disabilities and in the efforts seeking more effective inclusion of people with disabilities in their societies.

The training Hala received was part of the Small Business Development and gender-based violence (GBV) Awareness Programme, which CARE Jordan has launched with the aim of helping trainees start up and run their own small business. The programme falls within CARE’s contributions to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.    

CARE International seeks to enhance the resilience and welfare of the most vulnerable population in Jordan, especially women and the youth, through sustainable solutions and empowerment programs.

(CARE Jordan contributed this article to The Jordan Times)