Last update - 00:00 12/03/2007
Ethiopian seamstresses may lose work due to lack of gov't funds
By Ruth Sinai
A project for the manufacture of ethnic embroidered products, which employs 15 Ethiopian Israeli women and supplies work to dozens of women in outlying communities, is in danger of closing because it has not received the promised funding.
The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry says the Finance Ministry is delaying the funding, but the latter denies this.
The project was established in Lod about a decade ago by Pesher, an association that provides welfare services and helps find jobs for Ethiopian immigrant women. With government assistance, a group of local women were trained as seamstresses and worked full time for minimum wage.
More than 100 other women worked from home in embroidery or in community centers in a number of towns and were paid by the piece. In a good month they could earn NIS 1,000 from their products, which are sold from a store in Tel Aviv and directly to organizations.
In recent years the project has received funding of NIS 1 million from the ministry. But according to association head Shmulki Galmudi, the ministry is now four months in arrears in transfering NIS 350,000, with no pledge for 2007.
"If we don't get the money this week, we'll have to close down the project," he said. The ministry said funding has been approved for 2007, but the treasury has not transferred its request to the Knesset Finance Committee.
One theory is that the delay stems from anger at the treasury over Industry, Commerce and Employment Minister Eli Yishai's opposition to the continuation of the "welfare-to-work" Wisconsin Plan.
The treasury said this was not true, and that it had already transferred the funding request.