Feature: Young Gazans create their own startups to defy high rates of unemployment

Mohanned Nono, who graduated four years ago from the Islamic University of Gaza, once spent one year looking for a job in the impoverished coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip, but did not find any.

But now Nono owns an active advertisement and e-marketing company thanks to the help of a job creation program run by the Islamic University in Gaza.

Fosha, an internal tourism platform with tens of customers, is the website that Nono and his friend started three years ago. Now the company employs 15 full-time newly graduated students, who are majoring in marketing and advertisement.

The story started when Nono heard about the Mobaderoon Program (meaning "entrepreneurs" in Arabic) of the Islamic University, which funds creative small projects for newly graduates.

He applied for fund after submitting his project idea to the Program and after he received the fund, the young man kicked off his project.

His Gaza-based company is a quality addition in the world of e-marketing based on the latest technical measures which are used for the first time in the national level.

Visitors of Nono's website can have virtual tours of shops, hotels, tourist sites and restaurants that are listed on the website.

This allows visitors wander in restaurants, resorts and other institutions and enjoy the stunning views without any trouble of visiting these places.

Now the company has many members and visitors, where the business which started with two people and 5,000 U.S. dollars is growing rapidly.

He added that "Mobaderoon" is one of the first business incubation programs in the Gaza strip, starting in late 2010, and "the program is run by Islamic University and supported by Arab Fund Organization, Islamic Development Bank and Welfare Association."

Due to its initial success, Mobaderoon is currently running its third incubation program. Nono said that Mobaderoon accepts applications from graduates and young people with business ideas, and then follows a filtering process that ends up with 20-30 teams.

Poverty has hit more than 70 percent of the 1.8 million residents as the majority of the population mainly depends on food aid offered by the United Nations and a number of international and local NGOs.

According to a recent World Bank report, unemployment in Gaza has hit 50 percent and poverty climbed to 60 percent while 80 percent of the enclave's populations are living under the line of poverty.

Programs like Mobaderoon helps to reduce the rate of unemployment in Gaza. In the program, tens of young people are working on their projects with hope that they could get the needed money to start their professional lives.

"We had many financial and logistic problems to bring our project to light. Mobaderoon program provided us with everything we needed, from equipment to money that can make our ideas a reality. We hope that our project will succeed and get the funds," Mohanned Abu Karesh, one of the applicants to Mobaderoon, told Xinhua. Endit