• What does the program offer? 

The program develops, tests, packages, and markets medicinal products made from locally growing plants and trees in the Wadi Rum desert of southern Jordan.  Although the primary focus is improving livelihoods through veterinary medicine, ethnoveterinary products also have human medical application.  This project empowers the entrepreneurship of the local Bedouin people as they develop useful and effective medicines and feeds for local livestock.  Although this project began with the exploration of the medicinal uses of a naturally growing plant (Citrullus colocynthis, locally called “handhal”), other flora are explored for potential development towards medicinal uses.  Active ingredient extraction methods, pharmaceutical compounding, base mixtures, primary packaging, secondary packaging, labeling, marketing, product communication, distribution, and sales are all critical components of this project.  

A variety of expertise and experience is required and imparted through this project while providing income-generating potential to people, particularly women, who otherwise have little opportunity to contribute to family income.  Additionally, sprouting of the only locally available grain, barley, is being evaluated as a value-enhanced fodder during a 7-day process whereby water used in the fodder production system is collected and used for watering gardens and trees.   

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  What is the program for

This program builds local livelihoods by establishing guidance and creating local markets for plant-based medicinal products and animal fodder in an area where women need viable ways to contribute to family livelihoods and fibrous animal feed availability is insufficient.