'The art of cheesemaking' - In Jordan, Church project provides dignified work

Vatican News pays a visit to sites in Jordan where Iraqi refugees and local housewives are being granted the opportunity to work in dignity, producing cheese for a famous Church-run Jordanian restaurant.

Over the past century, Jordan has accepted huge amounts of refugees from neighbouring countries - including crisis-stiken Iraq.

While many Iraqis and have returned home, others have begun to put down permanent roots.

And, in a Church-run restaurant in the Jordanian capital Amman, many are hard at work producing cheese.

Helping vulnerable women

The refugees have been trained by the Habibi Association, founded by the Italian priest Father Mario Cornioli.

As well as that enterprise with Iraqi refugees, the Habibi Association runs a cheesemaking project that helps housewives facing grave financial challenges in Southern Jordan, in the village of Adir.

After a two hour drive from Amman to the little village, Vatican News had the privilege of seeing with its own eyes their dedication, beginning their production ritual in early morning.

The art of cheesemaking

Six women, whose ages range from early 30s until nearly 60, are the protagonists of the initiative. The supervisor, Iklas Bqa'een, 32, is the supervisor.

She told Vatican News that she had studied nutrition and said that this work of producing the Italian cheeses of ricotta and pecorino has been a meaningful way to reconcile her formation and passion with this work.

The mother of an eight-month-old shyly admitted her dream of opening another restaurant that would thrive through their production nearby.

Ricotta and pecorini galore

The Operation Officer of Habibi, Shafik Shahin, showed the facility to Vatican News, which was able to watch the ricotta and pecorino-producing process. He explained that the location was ideal because of the great availability of sheep's milk in southern Jordan.

While the ricotta is ready right away, the pecorino on the other hand needs between two and three months to age, and hence the journey continued into the cave of the facility.

Over the kitchen, there seems to be some extra graces as a comforting image of the Blessed Mother looks over the space, and on the turn of the hour, the bells of the nearby church started chiming an audible, but delightful and unmissable, 'Immaculate Mary.'.

What lies ahead

The projects offer the housewives and the refugees, both, meaningful opportunities to work, through a collaborative project.

While the wages of the housewives are not high, they help make a difference by providing some income.

On the other hand the refugees, while some wish to settle in Jordan, often wish to move on to other countries such as Australia or Canada. In fact, we learned that there are many success stories of those who were able to move to those countries and were able to have meaningful work because of the professional formation and training they received.

This is also thanks to another project Habibi spearheaded which has trained Iraqi refugee women, with the help of an Italian designer, to sew. Not only do they 'sew,' but they have brought to life various masterpieces that are sold above the restaurant, including clothing, table clothes, and bags.

Finally, Vatican News travelled to that restaurant in Amman to see the final product - and the cheese on the pizzas did not disapoint.

Deborah Castellano Lubov - Adir and Amman, Jordan
Source: vaticannews.va/en