Rooftop Gardens Program in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan

Anera’s rooftop gardening program across Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan epitomizes a holistic approach to development by emphasizing sustainability, optimizing resources, and empowering communities/families.

Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan have all experienced increases in food insecurity levels. Before the war, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s two million residents were food insecure. Now everyone is, and the food production sector is in ruins. In Lebanon, food access is a major issue with prices out of reach for families, with 50% living below the poverty line. In Jordan and the West Bank’s refugee camps, poverty and water shortages are perennial challenges.

This agricultural project installs rooftop gardens on family homes, including a hydroponic planting system, pioneered by our Gaza team, that makes wise use of water. To get each family’s garden started, we provide a greenhouse, wicking beds, seeds and seedlings, and training from our experienced agronomists.

Anera’s interconnected approach, tailored to the specific needs of each region, promotes shared goals and practices across all three countries we serve. Continual refinement of programs and cross-border knowledge sharing foster self-sufficiency and reduce dependency on external aid.

These little gardens grow a lot of food very efficiently, allowing food-insecure families to produce what they need to eat and to barter or generate some income from selling surpluses. Many of the participating families are women-headed.

Farming has been a way of life in the Middle East for millennia. For many families living in dense urban areas or 75-year-old Palestinian refugee camps, these rooftop oases represent a return to the land and to their roots.

Tragically, our garden work in Gaza has been on hold since the war began and the displacements have left 80% of the population homeless. When peace comes, however, these kinds of small gardens are going to be vital to families’ food security.