On-the-Ground | U.S. Funding Cuts to Palestine: The Impact on Programs and People
May 28, 2019
In an abrupt end to nearly 50 years of bipartisan support for Palestinian assistance, in August 2018, the U.S. administration announced it was pulling over $500 million in budgeted aid to Palestinians for the fiscal year ($200 million in bilateral aid for USAID, $300 million for UNRWA). Assistance administered by the United States Agency for…
Read MoreIt’s a state of emergency in Gaza
by Sami Matar
May 17, 2019
By Sami Matar Conditions in Gaza now are worse than they have ever been. Across all the governorates, the percentages of people who are jobless, who don’t have enough to eat, is up. Seventy percent of people in Gaza are food insecure. I see it in my own neighborhood and it’s the same situation everywhere…
Read MoreBuilding A Better Future in Palestine – What’s Your Vision?
by Sean Carroll
Apr 29, 2019
A message from Anera President & CEO, Sean Carroll… During a recent visit to Palestine, I visited some fields laced by sanasil, stone wall terraces, in the West Bank. For millennia, these sanasil have protected the land they are built upon from erosion and farmer’s crops and orchards from flooding or grazing wild animals. While…
Read MoreWorking to Empower the People and Environment of Palestine
Apr 19, 2019
As an environmental studies graduate and a recent volunteer in the West Bank, where I saw firsthand the threats to the natural environment, I am reflecting on Earth Day this year through the context of the Palestinian natural landscape. The environmental situation in the Palestinian territories is devastating. A range of factors create an unhealthy…
Read More11 ways Anera supports achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Apr 17, 2019
Considering Anera’s work within an international framework Anera’s goal is to help people in difficult situations live lives filled with dignity, meaning and hope. We do so by providing emergency supplies when disaster strikes, and by implementing long-term programs covering health, education, livelihoods, women’s empowerment and other critical issues. Creating stronger communities requires building up…
Read MoreHope Competition: Crafting Violins to Support Syrian Refugees
Mar 27, 2019
Late last fall, Marios Pavlou, a third-year student at The Newark School of Violin Making in the UK, reached out to Anera with a unique proposition: his school wanted to donate the proceeds from their instrument-building competition. The Newark School wanted sales of the instruments to support an organization working with Syrian refugees. Pavlou, originally…
Read MoreFollowing the Philanthropic Example Set by My Family
Mar 6, 2019
I’m a Palestinian-American born and raised in the city of Anabta, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Anabta, known for its vast olive groves, and recognized for its highly educated residents and their contributions in the arts, literature and sciences, is in the northern West Bank, on the main highway between Nablus…
Read MoreAnera is Building 6 New Preschools in Palestine
by Liz Demarest
Feb 28, 2019
As part of Anera’s early childhood development (ECD) work, we are currently building six new preschools in the northern West Bank. These schools, like the others Anera has built or renovated, are located in rural and economically disadvantaged communities, where access and availability are particularly limited. Early childhood has an immense impact on a person’s development…
Read MorePromoting Environmentalism & Hygiene in Lebanon
Feb 11, 2019
Meet Hatem, a 12-year-old Palestinian living in Burj Shemali camp in South Lebanon, while he gives you a tour of his school and shows you how Anera is working to promote environmentalism and hygiene in Lebanon by conducting a series of awareness sessions at UNRWA schools. These sessions are held to change attitudes and behaviors…
Read MoreEmergency Storm Response in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
Feb 6, 2019
In Lebanon, 70,000 refugees are at risk during extreme weather events. Of that number, over half are children, some 40,000. Last month, Lebanon was battered by two heavy storms. The impact on Syrian refugees living in tent camps was particularly acute. The first storm, Norma, struck on January 6 with heavy rain, high winds and…
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