Entrepreneurship

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The vision of Questscope is to walk alongside people who live in risk, to include them in articulating how they want to make things better, and to build their competencies to improve those things.

We work closely with people and communities to develop their resources and integrate outside resources made available to them. By investing in people and developing leaders, we can create new opportunities that would not have flourished before.

We have a particular focus on partnering with young people pushed to the raw edges of society by conflict, poverty, and social isolation. Around our world, 60% of everybody alive today is younger than 35. This amazing reality helps shape Questscope’s commitment for putting the last, first.

Lively hood tool kit

In Syria, violence on a country-wide scale is having a huge impact on Syrian youth, upending the dreams and life plans for education, marriage, family, and employment. Since 2011, the war has forced 6 million refugees to flee Syria and forced 12 million more into homelessness inside the country.

All over the country, youth and young adults are designing responses to meet enormous need. The Syrian Society for Social Development, our Syrian national partner, provides "Lively Hood Tool Kit" to help people return to work. Lively Hood Tool Kit provides essential tools for workers to practice their trade.

This program has particularly benefited young women – many of whom are entering the work force for the first time as electricians and plumbers to support their families as the sole breadwinner.

The Syria team is also innovating through the COVID-19 crisis, which is expected to have a catastrophic effect due to the war and infrastructure damage. As part of their response, they’re opening factories to produce hand sanitizer and face masks. This is in addition to an existing clothing factory called “Needle and Thread” that currently employs 58 people.

Youth Center

Questscope launched a youth center in the Za’atari Refugee Camp in 2013. It has grown into a hub of innovation and hope, led and directed by a core team of 50 visionary Syrian young adult staff and volunteers.

Currently underway is a new infrastructure and program expansion promoting youth development, entrepreneurship, and livelihood options in two locations. We plan to build out the infrastructure of Questscope’s thriving Za’atari Youth Center using open space adjacent to the existing center and add new core curriculum for Syrian refugees seeking to gain critical marketable skills, English language proficiency, and trauma-informed counseling.

The innovation center will provide in-depth training and support in the management skills of entrepreneurship, conducting business feasibility studies, drafting business plans, and developing pitches to launch small enterprises.

In the southern port city of Aqaba – home to mostly unregistered refugees – Questscope will create a new incubator of products and services offered by refugee entrepreneurs (e.g., tailoring, food preparation, childcare, agriculture-related enterprise, etc.).

It will contract directly with customers on behalf of refugee entrepreneurs. This essential arrangement ensures compliance with legal regulations and provides risk management for protection from exploitation.