Gaza Strawberry Farmer
May 23, 2018
Meet Akram, a Palestinian farmer in Beit Lahia, Gaza. He and his five brothers make a living from their 3.7 acres of strawberry crops. Anera rehabilitated the road leading to his property and they can more easily get their product to market. They also have a lot of visitors to the farm, who enjoy sitting…
Read More5 Things Anera is Doing to Help Gaza
May 23, 2018
Once again, the world is looking at tiny Gaza as it copes with more bloodshed and anguish. For Anera’s community of supporters, the news is a call to action to do something for the Palestinians of Gaza who are caught up in a situation that is hard for most people to fathom. With generous donor…
Read MoreLetter to My Mother in Gaza
May 13, 2018
Dear Om Mazin, it’s been more than five years since we were in the same room together and I miss that very much. Every passing day, I think about the joy of being in your company and in your eyesight. As a little boy growing up in Gaza, things did not always make sense. Back…
Read More11 Years of Visiting Gaza, Seeing it Deteriorate
Apr 25, 2018
Since December 2007 I have visited Gaza nine times. It is April 2018 and I just got back from a trip there. Over the course of 11 years, I have seen this beautiful strip of land deteriorate to the point where it is hard to imagine how much worse it can be. On my first…
Read More5 Ways Anera Helps Protect the Environment
Apr 23, 2018
Did you know that one of Anera’s priorities is protecting the environment? We incorporate green practices into a variety of projects, from building with recycled materials to irrigating with treated water. Here are five ways, thanks to our community of supporters, we are helping to address pollution, climate change and limited resources in Palestine (Gaza/West…
Read MoreTo Whom Much is Given, Much is Asked
Apr 5, 2018
A little over 15 years ago, my parents’ home in California burned to the ground. I drove up as the rubble was being cleared away and asked the workers to stop so I could rummage through and see what was salvageable. In a small frayed pouch I found all of my deceased father’s documents from…
Read MoreUpdates from Gaza for Water Day 2018
Mar 22, 2018
How often does one see government officials continue as planned with a scheduled public appearance after an assassination attempt against them en route? Last week, after a bomb detonated near the convoy of the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, he continued on to inaugurate the Northern Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment plant. That tells us how important…
Read More7 Years On: Remembering Syrian Refugees
Mar 15, 2018
After seven years of war in Syria, more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in informal tented settlements, abandoned buildings, or cramped spaces in decades-old Palestinian camps within Lebanon. Among them are the “twice refugeed”—displaced Palestinian refugees from Syria. They join the half-million Palestinian refugees already living in formal camps in Lebanon. Syrians living in…
Read MoreWhen women are empowered, everyone benefits.
Mar 8, 2018
“No society can be just, and no human or economic development even-spread and sustainable if women, who represent half of the population, are left behind, if their needs and aspirations are not addressed.” – Dr. Lamis Abu-Nahleh, founder of the Birzeit University Women’s Studies Program Women and girls are a powerful force in the communities…
Read MoreI’ve never left that hospital room in Burj El Barajneh
Mar 1, 2018
I was born toward the end of the Holocaust. I went to Hebrew school, marked all the Jewish holidays, and then went to a Jewish school of nursing. In 1967, I was asked to go volunteer in Israel. I didn’t know much about the politics there, but I heard there were Palestinians who were living…
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