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Sustainable Development Grant Recipients
2012
Hawwa Center
Project: Household Economy Project
Founded: 2002
Location: Nablus
The Nablus governate is suffering a great deal from the Israeli measures represented by the checkpoints and the imposed siege, which separate the villages from Nablus city, making it difficult for the farmers and inhabitants of these villages to get consultation, guidance, cultural, and marketing services. One of the major problems caused by the Israeli siege is the difficulty of transportation, a major obstacle facing agricultural development and related projects. This makes product marketing difficult, causing numerous projects to be shut down and leads to the misuse of the precious land and its natural resources.
These obstacles put the rural areas in a unenviable status, becoming fully dependent on the harvest season, which often ruined by the Israeli measures by denying them from accessing the market.
This project rehabilitates Palestinian families in selected areas in the Nablus governate to realize and achieve a well-managed household economy using available resources in efficient and hygienic ways. These include house gardens, food production and preservation, mushroom production, and raising and breeding livestock and honeybees to achieve food security and self-sufficiency.
Water Resource Action Project, Inc. (WRAP)
Project: Pilot rain collection system and environmental education
Founded: 2009
Location: West Bank, Palestine
A grant from The Jerusalem Fund funded the installation of a rainwater collection system and a related environmental education program at the Walajeh Co-Educational Basic School. The Walajeh Co-Ed School is in the village of al Walajeh, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in Area C. It was built in 2007, has 319 students in grades one through nine, and 19 teachers. While WRAP has successfully undertaken rain collection system installations in East Jerusalem, this was be WRAP’s first project in the West Bank. The system is necessary since this school does not have sufficient water during parts of the year when there is little rainfall and alternative water sources are unreliable or expensive.
Al Nahda Group
Project: Training Women to Make Clothes
Founded: 2007
Location: Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip
A grant from The Jerusalem Fund helped low income women who do not have a source of income to attend a clothes making seminar. This seminar may create jobs for those women to generate income by either making clothes of fixing clothes. Clothes produced in the training were distributed to local families at a discounted cost. The first phase worked with 20 low income women.
Al Quds Charitable Society
Project: Embroidery – sewing and handicraft
Founded: 2007
Location: Shufat Camp, Jerusalem
This project brought together women in need of physical, mental and economic rehabilitation, to learn practical sewing and embroidery skills, to concentrate on simple manual work, to enjoy sociability, and to earn an income from selling their products.
2011
The Palestinian Solar & Sustainable Energy Society (PSSES)
Project: The PSSES uses solar power systems to provide electricity to rural schools
Founded: 2008
Location: Al-Fakhit - Hebron
Al-Fakhit is a Palestinian village located at the southern tip of the West Bank. The village falls in Area C, an Israeli-administered area hardest hit by the occupation, and is left off of electric and water grids. This particular area has been declared a closed military zone, so even fewer resources reach the villagers. The solar power systems will provide electricity for isolated schools in the village and improve the learning environment for its children. These systems will save up to 70 megawatt/hours per year and will decrease the 45 tons of carbon per year released into the atmosphere through generators.
The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy-MIFTAH
Founded: 2003
Project: Developing Public Services at Palestinian Marginalized Areas.
Location: Village of Jiftlek in the Jordan Valley
Due to its location in Area C – amidst the Separation Barrier, checkpoints, and settlements – Jiftlek is an isolated community vulnerable to displacement; the village is also deprived of services and economic livelihood. Very few interventions in similar target communities have been registered. This project was implemented in concert with the local committee composed of the local residence of the village of Jiftlek. The community saw that there’s a need for a public park that will serve the majority of the Jiftlek residents, especially the children and women, who face difficulty in accessing safe, open public areas. Thus, The Jerusalem Fund funded MIFTAH to launch this project that will help make life easier for residents of this marginalized community.
MÉDITERRANÉE SOLIDARITÉ
Founded: 2008
Project: Joinery courses & creation of a joiner’s workshop. Occupational integration of young adults in trouble (unemployed, disabled…).
Location: Khan-Younis Gaza Strip
The training aims to give the basic techniques in joinery, to open a joiner’s workshop and to hire a young adult. The program is planned in the following way: a theoretical part and a practical part on how to make furniture. Participants must be unemployed, have a physical handicap, live in the governorate of Khan-Yunis, be more than 16 years old and have a diploma of first degree. The training teaches participants how to find work within small firms producing wooden articles or any other product that requires the skills developed during this training. At the end of the training, a person will be hired, for a year, to create a joiner’s workshop in the MAMED center and complement the offer of existing services. Funding from the Jerusalem Fund went toward the purchase of a set of tools: hand tools (measuring & control instrumentation, surfacing & emery tools, sawing & cutting tools, trimming and chiseling tools, screwing tools, hammering & dislocating tools…) and carpentry electric devices (portable electric carpentry devices, fixed electric carpentry machines).
Water Resource Action Project, Inc. (WRAP)
Founded: 2009
Project: Expansion/Completion of the Rainwater Collection System at Sur Baher Girls School, East Jerusalem
Location: East Jerusalem
WRAP, in cooperation with partners, finished construction of its first rain collection system at the Sur Baher Girls School in East Jerusalem last year. The system includes 1 collecting tank and 9 (1,500 liter) storage tanks which serve the bathroom on the opposite side of the building. The system collects rainwater that runs off the roof and sidewalks of the school into the 9 tanks, and has the capacity to collect and store 13,500 liters of water that is used for flushing toilets (the largest use of water in a school), greatly reducing the school's municipal water usage and the costs to it. The current system, however, does not cover the entire roof, so a significant amount of rainwater is lost. Furthermore, it does not serve all of the bathrooms. The Jerusalem Fund grant will help add three more storage tanks (making the total capacity 18,000 liters) and two more collecting barrels with submerged pumps; this will include water lines and labor to provide water to the toilets in two additional bathrooms.
2010
The Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation- Habilitation Preschool
Project: Habilitation Preschool Maintenance
Founded: 1986
Location: Mar Elias Camp, Beirut- Lebanon
Having a safe and a healthy space where disabled children learn to cope with their condition is crucial to the work of Habilitation Preschool. The old building foundations lacked basic and necessary measures that will ensure a safe and good living environment. Although maintenance was carried on in previous years, little can be done about water leakage, wall cracks, humidity, electricity shortages and ventilation have not been treated well. Creating unsafe environment for the children and staff due to the high humidity rate, which materialized in “water pools” forced the staff to stop implementing interventions programs and techniques for lack of space and the wearing of the material. Basic maintenance to address the building problems were made possible by a grant for the Jerusalem Fund and the preschool now is able to carry out its mission in serving children.
2008
Ibn Khaldoun Society for Community Development
Founded: 2002
Project: Renovate and Upgrade Four Gaza Kindergartens
Location: Gaza Strip
With the support of The Jerusalem Fund the Ibn Khaldoun Society for Community Development project to renovate, maintain and upgrade four Gaza kindergartens was completed. Needs assessment and priorities were identified by the local partners’ on-site engineers and coordinators. Letters of needs and priorities were exchanged with UNRWA, UNICEF and local institutions concerned with children. Most of the work was concentrated on improving both internal and external issues. The properly designed and developed play areas with appropriate facilities for children will soon be in place. The children and parents feel that the quality of their educational environment has been improved.
Playgrounds for Palestine
Founded: 2003
Project: Establish Ten Playgrounds in the West Bank
Location: Philadelphia
With a grant from The Jerusalem Fund, Playgrounds for Palestine was able to achieve its primary objective by working with local Palestinian municipalities and NGOs in order to establish ten playgrounds in Doma, Beit Iksa, Al-Arroub Refugee Camp, Bani Zaid, Yatta, Jerusalem, Balata Refugee Camp, Askar Refugee Camp, Jenin and Qalqilya. Playground sites are chosen on the basis of community need and feasibility. While precedence is given to those areas hit hardest by violence and oppression, actual site location is determined by where it is believed that the largest amount of children will be able to access the playground's premises safely. The goal is to provide Palestinian children residing in these areas of the West Bank with safe playgrounds where they may escape the harsh realities of their lives and play.
2007
Union of Palestinian Women Committees
Founded: 2001
Project: Computer Training for Palestinian Women
Location: Ramallah
With the support of The Jerusalem Fund, this project started a women's computer center at the Union of Palestinian Women Committee [UPWC] to train women from refugee camps in computer skills. Many women could not continue their university studies because of financial difficulties so these courses are at a very low cost or free to the students, depending on the case. The project also focuses on advocacy campaigns towards gender issues and helps the women find jobs after their participation in the courses. The gender and leadership courses held by the UPWC empowered the women to take a more active role in their society and the computer classes gave them new skills to find better jobs.
Wi’am Centre for Conflict Resolution
Founded: 1949
Project: Income Improvements and Civic Awareness
Location: Bethlehem
A grant from The Jerusalem Fund helped launch the Palestinian Apprenticeship Project to increase the income of impoverished Bethlehem families through development of new skills, the creation of new jobs in the short term and the matching of individuals with potential employers in the long term. Moreover, the project was able to strengthen civil society by providing public and private social institutions with volunteer labor to help rebuild and clean dilapidated facilities, particularly hospitals, schools, and community centers. Additionally, the project created a level of civic awareness and involvement, not only among citizens, but more importantly, among government officials.
Arab Women's Union of Ramallah
Founded: 1956
Project: Maintenance for Home of Arab Women Union of Ramallah
Location: Ramallah
With the support of The Jerusalem Fund, the Arab Women’s Union of Ramallah was able to add an additional floor to the old building that hosts the senior home and begin needed maintenance work on the building. The home belongs to the Arab Women's Union of Ramallah and serves senior citizens in the area — a service that few Palestinian organizations offer.
2004
Ramallah Friends School
Project: Playcenter
Location: Ramallah
The Ramallah Friends Schools have served the youth of Palestine and witnessed to Quaker values in the midst of conflict and adversity for more than a century. Today, on the Schools' campuses in Ramallah and el-Bireh more than 950 students from kindergarten through grade twelve receive a rich and rigorous education in Arabic and English. During the 2003 Israeli incursion on the Ramallah area, the both campuses suffered tremendous and unprecedented physical damage. The Jerusalem Fund helped to rebuild the Playcenter on the el-Bireh campus, which included the repairs to the damaged structure, purchase of destroyed furniture, toys and books.
U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Founded: 2001
Location: Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation was created in 2001 to hold the US government accountable for its policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of US support for military occupation, the US Campaign seeks to promote the application of human rights and international law as a viable road to resolution. The coalition's diverse membership is united by a passion to see justice and peace in the region. The group is rich in its ties to a range of communities, its levels of expertise, and the resources of member groups. The Jerusalem Fund provided a grant to support the US Campaign's annual strategy meeting, which was held at George Washington University.
2002
Health, Development, Information, and Policy Institute
Location: Ramallah
2001
The Social Development Committee
Location: Haifa
Badil Resource Center
Location: Beit Jala
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
Location: Jerusalem
Hanitzotz Publishing House
Location: Jaffa
2000
Jabalia Rehabilitation Society
Project: Jabalia Refugee Camp
Location: Gaza City
Hawwa Center
Project: Household Economy Project
Founded: 2002
Location: Nablus
The Nablus governate is suffering a great deal from the Israeli measures represented by the checkpoints and the imposed siege, which separate the villages from Nablus city, making it difficult for the farmers and inhabitants of these villages to get consultation, guidance, cultural, and marketing services. One of the major problems caused by the Israeli siege is the difficulty of transportation, a major obstacle facing agricultural development and related projects. This makes product marketing difficult, causing numerous projects to be shut down and leads to the misuse of the precious land and its natural resources.
These obstacles put the rural areas in a unenviable status, becoming fully dependent on the harvest season, which often ruined by the Israeli measures by denying them from accessing the market.
This project rehabilitates Palestinian families in selected areas in the Nablus governate to realize and achieve a well-managed household economy using available resources in efficient and hygienic ways. These include house gardens, food production and preservation, mushroom production, and raising and breeding livestock and honeybees to achieve food security and self-sufficiency.
Water Resource Action Project, Inc. (WRAP)
Project: Pilot rain collection system and environmental education
Founded: 2009
Location: West Bank, Palestine
A grant from The Jerusalem Fund funded the installation of a rainwater collection system and a related environmental education program at the Walajeh Co-Educational Basic School. The Walajeh Co-Ed School is in the village of al Walajeh, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in Area C. It was built in 2007, has 319 students in grades one through nine, and 19 teachers. While WRAP has successfully undertaken rain collection system installations in East Jerusalem, this was be WRAP’s first project in the West Bank. The system is necessary since this school does not have sufficient water during parts of the year when there is little rainfall and alternative water sources are unreliable or expensive.
Al Nahda Group
Project: Training Women to Make Clothes
Founded: 2007
Location: Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip
A grant from The Jerusalem Fund helped low income women who do not have a source of income to attend a clothes making seminar. This seminar may create jobs for those women to generate income by either making clothes of fixing clothes. Clothes produced in the training were distributed to local families at a discounted cost. The first phase worked with 20 low income women.
Al Quds Charitable Society
Project: Embroidery – sewing and handicraft
Founded: 2007
Location: Shufat Camp, Jerusalem
This project brought together women in need of physical, mental and economic rehabilitation, to learn practical sewing and embroidery skills, to concentrate on simple manual work, to enjoy sociability, and to earn an income from selling their products.
2011
The Palestinian Solar & Sustainable Energy Society (PSSES)
Project: The PSSES uses solar power systems to provide electricity to rural schools
Founded: 2008
Location: Al-Fakhit - Hebron
Al-Fakhit is a Palestinian village located at the southern tip of the West Bank. The village falls in Area C, an Israeli-administered area hardest hit by the occupation, and is left off of electric and water grids. This particular area has been declared a closed military zone, so even fewer resources reach the villagers. The solar power systems will provide electricity for isolated schools in the village and improve the learning environment for its children. These systems will save up to 70 megawatt/hours per year and will decrease the 45 tons of carbon per year released into the atmosphere through generators.
The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy-MIFTAH
Founded: 2003
Project: Developing Public Services at Palestinian Marginalized Areas.
Location: Village of Jiftlek in the Jordan Valley
Due to its location in Area C – amidst the Separation Barrier, checkpoints, and settlements – Jiftlek is an isolated community vulnerable to displacement; the village is also deprived of services and economic livelihood. Very few interventions in similar target communities have been registered. This project was implemented in concert with the local committee composed of the local residence of the village of Jiftlek. The community saw that there’s a need for a public park that will serve the majority of the Jiftlek residents, especially the children and women, who face difficulty in accessing safe, open public areas. Thus, The Jerusalem Fund funded MIFTAH to launch this project that will help make life easier for residents of this marginalized community.
MÉDITERRANÉE SOLIDARITÉ
Founded: 2008
Project: Joinery courses & creation of a joiner’s workshop. Occupational integration of young adults in trouble (unemployed, disabled…).
Location: Khan-Younis Gaza Strip
The training aims to give the basic techniques in joinery, to open a joiner’s workshop and to hire a young adult. The program is planned in the following way: a theoretical part and a practical part on how to make furniture. Participants must be unemployed, have a physical handicap, live in the governorate of Khan-Yunis, be more than 16 years old and have a diploma of first degree. The training teaches participants how to find work within small firms producing wooden articles or any other product that requires the skills developed during this training. At the end of the training, a person will be hired, for a year, to create a joiner’s workshop in the MAMED center and complement the offer of existing services. Funding from the Jerusalem Fund went toward the purchase of a set of tools: hand tools (measuring & control instrumentation, surfacing & emery tools, sawing & cutting tools, trimming and chiseling tools, screwing tools, hammering & dislocating tools…) and carpentry electric devices (portable electric carpentry devices, fixed electric carpentry machines).
Water Resource Action Project, Inc. (WRAP)
Founded: 2009
Project: Expansion/Completion of the Rainwater Collection System at Sur Baher Girls School, East Jerusalem
Location: East Jerusalem
WRAP, in cooperation with partners, finished construction of its first rain collection system at the Sur Baher Girls School in East Jerusalem last year. The system includes 1 collecting tank and 9 (1,500 liter) storage tanks which serve the bathroom on the opposite side of the building. The system collects rainwater that runs off the roof and sidewalks of the school into the 9 tanks, and has the capacity to collect and store 13,500 liters of water that is used for flushing toilets (the largest use of water in a school), greatly reducing the school's municipal water usage and the costs to it. The current system, however, does not cover the entire roof, so a significant amount of rainwater is lost. Furthermore, it does not serve all of the bathrooms. The Jerusalem Fund grant will help add three more storage tanks (making the total capacity 18,000 liters) and two more collecting barrels with submerged pumps; this will include water lines and labor to provide water to the toilets in two additional bathrooms.
2010
The Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation- Habilitation Preschool
Project: Habilitation Preschool Maintenance
Founded: 1986
Location: Mar Elias Camp, Beirut- Lebanon
Having a safe and a healthy space where disabled children learn to cope with their condition is crucial to the work of Habilitation Preschool. The old building foundations lacked basic and necessary measures that will ensure a safe and good living environment. Although maintenance was carried on in previous years, little can be done about water leakage, wall cracks, humidity, electricity shortages and ventilation have not been treated well. Creating unsafe environment for the children and staff due to the high humidity rate, which materialized in “water pools” forced the staff to stop implementing interventions programs and techniques for lack of space and the wearing of the material. Basic maintenance to address the building problems were made possible by a grant for the Jerusalem Fund and the preschool now is able to carry out its mission in serving children.
2008
Ibn Khaldoun Society for Community Development
Founded: 2002
Project: Renovate and Upgrade Four Gaza Kindergartens
Location: Gaza Strip
With the support of The Jerusalem Fund the Ibn Khaldoun Society for Community Development project to renovate, maintain and upgrade four Gaza kindergartens was completed. Needs assessment and priorities were identified by the local partners’ on-site engineers and coordinators. Letters of needs and priorities were exchanged with UNRWA, UNICEF and local institutions concerned with children. Most of the work was concentrated on improving both internal and external issues. The properly designed and developed play areas with appropriate facilities for children will soon be in place. The children and parents feel that the quality of their educational environment has been improved.
Playgrounds for Palestine
Founded: 2003
Project: Establish Ten Playgrounds in the West Bank
Location: Philadelphia
With a grant from The Jerusalem Fund, Playgrounds for Palestine was able to achieve its primary objective by working with local Palestinian municipalities and NGOs in order to establish ten playgrounds in Doma, Beit Iksa, Al-Arroub Refugee Camp, Bani Zaid, Yatta, Jerusalem, Balata Refugee Camp, Askar Refugee Camp, Jenin and Qalqilya. Playground sites are chosen on the basis of community need and feasibility. While precedence is given to those areas hit hardest by violence and oppression, actual site location is determined by where it is believed that the largest amount of children will be able to access the playground's premises safely. The goal is to provide Palestinian children residing in these areas of the West Bank with safe playgrounds where they may escape the harsh realities of their lives and play.
2007
Union of Palestinian Women Committees
Founded: 2001
Project: Computer Training for Palestinian Women
Location: Ramallah
With the support of The Jerusalem Fund, this project started a women's computer center at the Union of Palestinian Women Committee [UPWC] to train women from refugee camps in computer skills. Many women could not continue their university studies because of financial difficulties so these courses are at a very low cost or free to the students, depending on the case. The project also focuses on advocacy campaigns towards gender issues and helps the women find jobs after their participation in the courses. The gender and leadership courses held by the UPWC empowered the women to take a more active role in their society and the computer classes gave them new skills to find better jobs.
Wi’am Centre for Conflict Resolution
Founded: 1949
Project: Income Improvements and Civic Awareness
Location: Bethlehem
A grant from The Jerusalem Fund helped launch the Palestinian Apprenticeship Project to increase the income of impoverished Bethlehem families through development of new skills, the creation of new jobs in the short term and the matching of individuals with potential employers in the long term. Moreover, the project was able to strengthen civil society by providing public and private social institutions with volunteer labor to help rebuild and clean dilapidated facilities, particularly hospitals, schools, and community centers. Additionally, the project created a level of civic awareness and involvement, not only among citizens, but more importantly, among government officials.
Arab Women's Union of Ramallah
Founded: 1956
Project: Maintenance for Home of Arab Women Union of Ramallah
Location: Ramallah
With the support of The Jerusalem Fund, the Arab Women’s Union of Ramallah was able to add an additional floor to the old building that hosts the senior home and begin needed maintenance work on the building. The home belongs to the Arab Women's Union of Ramallah and serves senior citizens in the area — a service that few Palestinian organizations offer.
2004
Ramallah Friends School
Project: Playcenter
Location: Ramallah
The Ramallah Friends Schools have served the youth of Palestine and witnessed to Quaker values in the midst of conflict and adversity for more than a century. Today, on the Schools' campuses in Ramallah and el-Bireh more than 950 students from kindergarten through grade twelve receive a rich and rigorous education in Arabic and English. During the 2003 Israeli incursion on the Ramallah area, the both campuses suffered tremendous and unprecedented physical damage. The Jerusalem Fund helped to rebuild the Playcenter on the el-Bireh campus, which included the repairs to the damaged structure, purchase of destroyed furniture, toys and books.
U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Founded: 2001
Location: Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation was created in 2001 to hold the US government accountable for its policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of US support for military occupation, the US Campaign seeks to promote the application of human rights and international law as a viable road to resolution. The coalition's diverse membership is united by a passion to see justice and peace in the region. The group is rich in its ties to a range of communities, its levels of expertise, and the resources of member groups. The Jerusalem Fund provided a grant to support the US Campaign's annual strategy meeting, which was held at George Washington University.
2002
Health, Development, Information, and Policy Institute
Location: Ramallah
2001
The Social Development Committee
Location: Haifa
Badil Resource Center
Location: Beit Jala
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
Location: Jerusalem
Hanitzotz Publishing House
Location: Jaffa
2000
Jabalia Rehabilitation Society
Project: Jabalia Refugee Camp
Location: Gaza City