By Yasser Alhaj | Karama Director
Dear Karama Supporter,
The last weeks were full of progress for the participants in our rooftop gardens project so we are eager to share these exciting developments with you!
Last Friday we had a trainings workshop for the participants together with an expert from the Ministry of Agriculture. The Palestinian Authority wanted to extend its support with this gesture, which offered a chance for the women to get together with somebody daily involved in vegetable production. He shared insights on growing on such a small space and the women asked him advice about what plants to grow best. Now most of the participants have started planting they have received another great incentive to give as much of their energy and attention possible in this project!
Another great motivator for all the people surrounding this project was the visit of a TV crew from Al Jazeera, an international news channel broadcasting all over the world. For a program for the Arabic channel, they filmed the rooftop gardens and some of the participants involved to display the story of the Palestinian refugees. On the 14th of May, this report was broadcast on their TV channel. This broadcast comes at the occassion of the rememberance of the Naqba - the term that refers to the expulsion of Palestinians before and after the announcement of the state of Israel. All around Palestine this expulsion continues. Bedoein are still forced of their lands, villages have their land seized for settlements and the land and few houses left from before the Naqba remain out of reach for the refugees and even under threat of demolition. There is no better day to show the occupation and the world with our project that we as refugees will never give up. That we are able to create everything out of nothing and that we can turn the naqba into revolution. The participants are proud of the project and feel the connection to their land - even if they don't have access to it yet. Some of them shy, some of them bold they shared their story in front of the camera and we hope you will enjoy watching the clip! Especially for our international supporters we have translated the report and provided subtitles, so quickly watch the video through the link below or here: http://youtu.be/qUfzflYqQeE
In the coming weeks the participants will continue planting their gardens and we look forward with them to the progress. We hope you look out to our next update as well!
A big thank you and many warm wishes from Deheishe!
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