As soon as Mrs. Fatoum Ahmed Mouawad received her training in occupational competencies in incense and perfume production, at the end of last year, the incense and perfume production occupation offered her and her family a safe livelihood.

“Thank God, I have become dependent on myself and I pay the rent… and my children are now better,” Fatoum said, in the context of her comparing between a painful reality that she and her family had already experienced, and a new reality that she had a dream yesterday.

Fatoum “37 years old” has not forgotten how she, her six children and her unemployed and mentally ill husband have lived through various kinds of suffering and various kinds of fears, over the past five years.

The war forced them to leave their home in AL-Hodeidah and move to Tuban district of Lahj governorate in the south of the country.

Fatoum and her family displacement came as guests of poor Tuban district, where the devastating deprivation of food, medicine, and shelter prevails, so, It was difficult for them to access the already scarce resources.

While the strong displaced person remained, waiting for her opportunity to access the apprenticeship program implemented by International Labor Organization with its local partner Ghadaq for Development Organization in Lahj, Abyan and Taiz districts of, and at the beginning of last year, she achieved access to the program, whose members amounted to 311 male and female apprentices who were distributed in 9 training occupations.

The outputs of the training program were matched with the requirements of the labor market, in a way that lifted Fatoum and her colleagues from the unemployment to entrepreneurship.

The distinguished apprentice had to zealously cling to the opportunity, so she completed the competencies of the training program armed with an experienced professional work.

As an entrepreneur, Fatoum today speaks with high confidence about her ability to incense and perfumes production, and she has clients in the country where women are the most famous in this industry, which reflects the positive impact of the apprenticeship program on her integration into the new society.