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The Olive Press

10 Reasons to #GiveHope this Giving Tuesday

Nov 21, 2017

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When you donate to Anera this Giving Tuesday, your gift will be matched up to $10,000. Below, we list 10 more reasons to #givehope to refugees and vulnerable communities. 1. Refugees need help more than ever While some countries are closing their doors to refugees, others are spread thin trying to accommodate the millions of…

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How Music Therapy Helps Palestinian Children

by Anera

Nov 10, 2017

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By Buran Saada, Anera teacher trainer and music therapist When I was only a school girl, I discovered my voice. My music teacher noticed that I could adapt to different music styles, so she picked me to sing in the school choir. In high school, I joined a band called Al-Awda, meaning “the return,” alluding…

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How Palestinian Farmers Cherish an Ancient Tradition

Nov 3, 2017

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In our Jerusalem office, we all know it’s olive harvest season when our colleague Ma’moun, our maintenance officer, takes an entire week off. Last week, he returned after a week off with a great feeling of fulfillment. He had turned a batch of ripe olives into luscious olive oil. Farmers across Palestine feel the same…

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7 Ways Palestinians Are Celebrating Olive Harvest This Year

by Anera

Nov 2, 2017

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As November begins, Palestine is in the midst of its olive harvest season, which began last month. That means that from Gaza to the West Bank, Palestinian farmers are heading to their trees to pick the ripe fruit, gather and sort it, and send it off to local presses to make staples like olive oil…

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Video: Tapestry of Humanity

by Anera

Oct 25, 2017

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What do people from different walks of life have in common? The farmer in Palestine, the teacher in a refugee camp, the precocious preschooler, the Gaza entrepreneur. In our film Tapestry of Humanity, we visit unique individuals who show us that we all have one thing in common, regardless of where we come from: our…

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How Palestinian Children Can Get the Right Start

Oct 18, 2017

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My childhood was the most beautiful time of my entire life. I used to spend my time playing in the alleys of Arroub refugee camp, my home in the West Bank. Despite the camp’s uncovered sewage canals, poor lighting and dusty, unpaved streets, life was not complicated. My neighbors and I made a playground of…

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Spotlighting the Refugee Crisis in Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow

Oct 11, 2017

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There’s an expression in Arabic, khallyh yballt albahar, which translates to, “let him lay tiles on the seafloor,” and is usually said when someone insists on going through with a bad idea they’ve been warned against. I thought of the phrase as I sat down to watch Ai Weiwei’s new film, Human Flow. In it,…

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The Stories Tapestries Tell

Oct 3, 2017

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Inside an embroidery workshop in the heart of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sabah stands at the helm of an important component of Palestinian identity and history. Not only is she an instructor of Palestinian embroidery, but she’s also a keeper of stories accumulated throughout the two decades of her career. Sabah’s workshop is…

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Health and Power in Gaza

Sep 29, 2017

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The situation in Gaza has been calamitous and unstable for a long time, but it’s never been as bad as it is now. The electricity shortage has thoroughly affected all aspects of life, particularly in sewage and health systems. Plants that process sewage, water and waste cannot function without electricity. So the sewage plants, for…

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Despite Water Scarcity, a Green Summer in Jenin

Sep 14, 2017

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Is there a sight more beautiful than lush fields of green? But fields need water and in Palestine, water is both the dilemma and the solution. The scarcity of water in the West Bank, particularly, has inspired us at Anera to think creatively. Why not make use of a non-traditional source of water that just…

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