QUEST’s initiative is not a surprise, for it was the culmination of continuous efforts spanning over7 decades of our founder, the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) , and specifically the focus and expertise of the Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR), which started in 1948 and eventually evolved into five Area Committees, coordinated by a central office in Central Office in East Jerusalem, and located in Jerusalem & West Bank; Jordan; Lebanon; Galilee and the Gaza Strip.
With the aim to actively contribute to fostering, improving, and advancing the living, socio-economic, health, education, and environmental conditions of refugees and the marginalized, DSPR provides humanitarian and social programs and services based on equality and reciprocity to the local community and partner organizations through active contribution in the following fields: Emergency relief (in search of safety) Children at risk, Refugees against poverty, Business Recovery, and Women-Empowerment.
QUEST for socially cohesive socio-economic change in Jordan by empowering Jordanian, Palestinian and Syrian entrepreneurs to create their start-ups, expand their existing businesses with the single aim of improving their living standards, and paying back to society.
Our story, values, drive, passion and message are embodied in our name QUEST. As it paves our way forward, QUEST also spells out our values. We QUEST for change in a Qualified, Quantifiable, Unified and Socially cohesive manner led by Empowered Teams of Entrepreneurs, consultants, donors, volunteers, and partners.
QUEST is a co-entrepreneur to local businesses in emerging economies. Since 2018, we fund pre-growth and operational SMEs in Jordan for economic growth, maximize social impact between refugees and hosting community and increased business maturity.
QUEST is not only about money. QUEST is about creating opportunities.
QUEST about contributing to a better local community. When we support and grow local businesses as key actors in value chains.
We create economic Development with commercial sustainable business model.
Jordan has one of the highest Youth unemployment rates in the MENA region due to COVID-19 pandemic and other economic factors (27.2%). The huge influx of refugees due to the Syrian war has affected the neighboring countries. Shortage of jobs in Jordan means that entrepreneurship will be important avenue for youth to pursue in the coming years. Jordanian government have made entrepreneurship a key element in its economic growth strategy. However, starting or expansion in new businesses will require an improvement in the enabling environment including access to finance and the need for improved Technical and Vocational training skills acquisition. Large-scale interventions that seek to address systematic enabling environment challenges, as well as those aimed at entrepreneurial skill building, will be necessary to promote job creation in Jordan.
Among the possible approaches to the refugee crisis, Kerk in Actie (KIA) & Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR Jordan) believe entrepreneurs are the best intermediaries to enhance as many lives as possible in a financially sustainable way. Entrepreneurs who fled to Jordan lost their business, they might have lost most of their capital, but still have their entrepreneurial experience and skills.
KIA shared this view with DSPR and have the mission to professionally contribute to the strengthening of the Jordan SME eco-system, which enhances livelihood for both the Jordan host community as well as Syrian/Iraqi refugees, as a form of structural aid.
KIA as a donor and DSPR as an implementer have established QUEST Recovering Businesses in 2018 targeting the refugees’ entrepreneurs and local host entrepreneurs to restart and boost their SME’s businesses.