USAID Emergency Employment Generation Program

In 2002, UPA was awarded a $2.7 million grant to implement a USAID-funded job creation program in the West Bank and Gaza in cooperation with the Welfare Association in East Jerusalem. The eighteen-month program is part of the USAID's $17 million Emergency Employment Generation Program (EEGP). The goal of the program is to create short-term employment for unemployed workers in poor areas of the West Bank and Gaza while investing in long-term development through job training and the renovation and construction of buildings, roads, and parks. We invite you to read some success stories from this program recently posted on the Web site of the USAID West Bank and Gaza Mission.

The program requires each of its forty projects to spend at least 60 percent of its budget on labor costs and to hire mainly small local sub-contractors and unemployed heads of households over eighteen years of age. The projects mainly involve building or renovating community centers, hospitals, playgrounds, youth and women's centers, kindergartens, and schools. There are also projects to train unemployed youth in computer skills, to construct income-generating stores, to improve sports grounds, and to clear land for public parks and gardens.

UPA's role is to disburse funds, oversee implementation of the projects, evaluate their progress, audit spending, and report on a quarterly basis to USAID. We have a liaison officer residing in the West Bank who works closely with the Welfare Association and the USAID West Bank and Gaza Mission on the weekly management of the projects.

In 1985, UPA became the first Palestinian-American charity to be granted the status of a Private and Voluntary Organization (PVO) registered with USAID. Thanks to patience and hard work, we are now realizing the promise of that status by bringing desperately needed aid to hundreds of Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza.

United Palestinian Appeal
1330 New Hampshire Ave., NW Suite 104
Washington, DC 20037
Tel.: (202) 659-5007
Fax: (202) 296-0224
Email: contact@helpupa.com
Website: www.helpUPA.com