Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, will grant $1.3 million to three non-profit organizations in the Middle East and North Africa, with the aim of providing entrepreneurs and job seekers with the necessary technical skills over the next two years. The role of the grant recipients (I Dare for Sustainable Development (I Dare), Helm, and Spark) is to reach people from various backgrounds in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates.
Helm, an NGO that promotes the inclusion and employment of people with disabilities, will receive a $400,000 grant; Spark, an NGO that provides young people in conflict-affected areas with the skills needed for success, will receive a $600,000 grant. I Dare, a non-profit organization that promotes positive growth in young people for sustainable change, will receive a $300,000 grant.
To improve its outreach efforts to the labor market and enhance its inclusiveness, Helm will launch workshops in Arabic and English, in which sign language translation, as well as additional segments for interpretation and explanation, will be provided. These workshops will focus on digital literacy and how to use the English language to communicate in the business world, and its aim is to teach participants digital and other skills required in the labor market. The workshops will be held in Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates over an extended period of 18 months, with more than 1,000 expected participants.
Furthermore, Helm will communicate with a range of bodies from the public and private sectors to help create and enhance job opportunities for people with special needs and connect employers with skilled job seekers. This grant will also help Helm complete its mission of improving access to high-quality education and providing training programs that recognize the needs of persons with disabilities in order to provide better employment and skill-development opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Spark, which has seen that many refugees and displaced young people around the world have lost their jobs and sources of income in light of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, will use the grant funding to host digital skills training sessions for 250 young refugees, inviting members of local communities from Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, as well as providing training and mentoring sessions to more than 100 business owners to help them develop their businesses. Launching a region-wide competition for startup owners, Spark will launch a digital networking platform to connect 1,500 male and female entrepreneurs with university fresh graduates and job seekers in order to exchange experiences and opportunities. This grant opens doors to providing sustainable employment opportunities for refugees and young men and women in the Middle East in high-demand markets and in line with global trends. It will also support startups and employment in the tech and digital sectors across underprivileged refugee communities in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine.
Through its project, C-Hub, I Dare seeks to support change-makers, especially women, by providing them with the skills that they need to build a sustainable future for themselves. To improve employment equity in Jordan, it will use its grant to train 200 young women, including those without previous work experience, on an array of skills, including product marketing and design thinking.
The organization will also provide training courses on the safe use of machines in handicrafts, such as carpentry and digital fabrication. The program will run for three years as part of the C-Hub project titled “I Dare.” This grant is part of Google.org's Impact Challenges for Women and Girls initiative, which aims to fund organizations to pave the way to the prosperity of women and girls alike.
These grants are some of the commitments made by Google to improve digital skills in the Middle East and North Africa region and support business growth. Last year, the company pledged to help one million individuals and businesses in the Middle East and North Africa, providing them with digital skills and helping them grow their business by the end of 2021. So far, more than 950,000 people have benefited from it, with the new grants and digital training opportunities expected to expand and reach more beneficiaries across the region.
