INTERNATIONAL RELIEF & DEVELOPMENT

“Mission

IRD’s mission is to reduce the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable groups and provide tools and resources needed to increase their self-sufficiency. IRD was founded in 1998 and has grown over the past decade into an organization that is operating in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. IRD is a charitable, non-profit, non-governmental organization that collaborates with local and international partners to design and implement humanitarian relief and development aid programs

IRD Jordan was established in 2003, primarily for the purpose of supporting programmatic operations in Iraq. In 2006, IRD Jordan began implementing Jordan-based programs. Since then, IRD Jordan has implemented eight programs focused on providing support to Iraqi Refugees with funding from the United States Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). With funding provided by the United States Agency of International Development, IRD Jordan implements a five year Community Mobilization and Education Program in public schools across the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

IRD Lebanon was established in response to the 2006 July War in Lebanon which caused nearly 975,000 people to flee their homes at the height of emergency.

In September 2006, the Department for International Development (DfID), the UK government department dealing in humanitarian aid, awarded IRD a grant to provide assistance to poor rural households in southern Lebanon adversely affected by the July War. The project, which continued for four months, focused on ten small villages in the Tyre District of southern Lebanon and has benefited more than eight thousand people.

In 2009, IRD with funding from the U.S. Department of State, began working with young Iraqi men, aged 20-35, to provide entrepreneurship training within a Lebanese small business, building entrepreneurship skills on the job for one year in order to better prepare them for the job market should they choose to return to Iraq. Through the Entrepreneurship for Refugees (EFR) program, IRD is working with a network of businesses to assume bond costs for residence visas for Iraqi men participating in the entrepreneurship program. The entrepreneur can then employ the Iraqi at apprentice rates, up to three months of ware subsidized by IRD while the work permit is being processed. This creates a win-win situation whereby the Iraqi gains business skills, earns an income, and has legal status for one year, while the Lebanese business owner has a dedicated apprentice at a low cost”