Iptisam (left) is the shopkeeper/entrepreneur whose efforts are stimulating the production of traditional embroidery in Balata Refugee camp. The ladies of the camp who produce the embroidery, are 2nd and 3rd generation refugees whose families were forced to flee during the Nakbah - the war of 1948.

Their families mostly came from villages in the Galilee and the area between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Balata Refugee camp is one of the most impoverished and crowded camps in the West Bank with over 30,000 people crammed into an area of about one square kilometer (about .386 square miles).

Iptisam was Director of the Women's Center in the Camp until 2014 when she decided to devote herself to women's economic development activities, culminating in the opening of the shop just outside the camp entrance, next to the church at Jacob's Well.