Nourishing Hope
It needs no repeating that it has been an incredibly challenging year for all of Palestine. In the current trying circumstances, hope is a valuable commodity - one that social enterprises can help sustain. Build Palestine, our partner in the EU-funded Impact Together! project, is leading several active initiatives that are helping to nourish hope for a better tomorrow for the region.
There is a case to be made that social enterprises are uniquely placed to make a difference during moments of hardship. In a way, says Build Palestine, they are grateful for the clarity of their purpose. Rebuilding what has been lost during this confict will require time, resources, but most of all, it will require the efforts of Palestinian changemakers. Leaders who come up with innovative, flexible solutions to the problems faced by Palestinian society and communities today. Scaling these efforts will greatly support any steps towards reconstruction and social progress in the near future.
One of the main ways Build Palestine supports social entrepreneurs in the region, is through its Fellowship Program. It is designed for leaders of early-stage social enterprises by Palestinians who are making an impact in the historic region of Palestine. The aim is to help social enterprises that have either a working product, service or prototype to refine their business model and to sustainably realize their vision.
To do this, Build Palestine leverages its own acquired knowledge as well as involving a network of mentors, experts and established entrepreneurs. Live sessions, workshops and tailored coaching guide participants through a structured approach that involves creating a clear mission statement, creating a viable business model, learning how to measure actual impact, how to go about financial planning and how to pitch your enterprise to a community of investors, stakeholders and customers. It is an involved, high-speed incubation program that opens doors to further support and opportunities within the Build Palestine network.
The Fellowship Program has been running since 2021 and has provided crucial support to a number of Palestinian social enterprises. “The Fellowship Program enabled me to articulate our startup’s details effectively, resulting in a clearer vision and communication strategy,” says Mohammed Nejmeddin. He runs Seddeh, a start-up focusing on sustainable, eco-friendly fashion. Through networking, they were able to start a workshop partnership with Zero-Waste Palestine.
Another alumnus of the program, Talleh Cultural Center, has also benefited greatly from the Build Palestine offering. Active since 2016, they are committed to preserving cultural heritage and empowering Palestinian women. While their work has a commercial component, offering a sales platform to the handcrafted goods made by the artisans in their network, their impact reaches much further than this.
As a cultural center, they provide a myriad of trainings and workshops, promoting cultural awareness while at the same time creating economic opportunities. The door is always open at Talleh - visitors can come in to learn about Palestinian culture or to have a try at creating pottery or weaving fabrics. The center currently empowers over 80 Palestinian women, giving them the necessary tools to share their talent.
This year, the Build Palestine Fellowship Program received over 100 applications hailing from a variety of sectors, including: agriculture, mental health, and education. Even social entrepreneurs from Gaza sent in their application, testifying to the incredible strength that social enterprises can show in moments of crisis. From this initial round, four fellows were selected for the 2024 cohort:
1. Art to Heart
Established in 2018, Art to Heart is a Palestinian non-profit organization that aims to transform the lives of people with disabilities, as well as to promote social change through engagement in the arts. Art is explored as a means through which vulnerable groups like the deaf, disabled and neuro-diverse can express themselves. In doing so, they aim to challenge existing stereotypes and to advocate for the rights of groups that risk falling into social isolation.
2. My First Book
My First Book is a project started by Dr. Ghalia Ahmed Saleh, a pharmacist and a mother of three. It aims to offer children a creative alternative to electronics, by engaging them in the world of books, stories and fabrics. The interactive offering of My First Book is designed to help children develop their unique skills and talents, as well as to teach them skills like self-reliance through education and scientific thinking. To maximize the impact, the project adopts a catered approach based around the child's personality.
3. Rummana
Rummana is an artistic and cultural space for children in the conflict-ridden Wadi Al-Samen area near Hebron. Rummana offers a safe space for children and allows them to live different experiences in the arts, film screenings, story discussions, and book lending services. In doing so, Rummana aims to builds bridge between children and their community, between the children themselves, and the children and their families.
4. The Wonder Cabinet
The Wonder Cabinet is a space for artistic production and cultural development in Bethlehem, Palestine, inaugurated in May 2023. It brings together people and initiatives from different geographies and sectors to implement experimental projects and productions encompassing a broad spectrum of the visual and sound arts, artisanship, design, architecture, food, research and education. As such, they aim to be a true hub for culture and innovation, bringing the community together and empowering them to explore their talents. The Wonder Cabinet space currently comprises a production facility, artist studios, a flexible multipurpose hall, a listening bar and food laboratory, a store, a sound production and Radio al Hara station, as well as a garden.
Moving through the Build Palestine Fellowship Program will allow these existing projects to learn the necessary skills to take their efforts to the next level, expand their network and scale their efforts in the near future.
Grassroots campaigns
Another way in which Build Palestine looks to ‘nourish hope’ in the region, is by assisting in grassroots crowdfunding campaigns. This approach links in to the broader ecosystem approach adopted by the organization, that aims to create a true community of Palestinian changemakers all over the globe. The process is quite simple – Build Palestine screens and identifies ongoing crowdfunding efforts to see what impact they could generate. If approved, they use their network and partner’s networks to amplify the crowdfunding campaign and to help it achieve its goals. So far, these efforts have resulted in one successfully concluded campaign, and one more that is still ongoing.
The concluded campaign sought to gather funds for Colors for Gaza, an initiative that leverages art, education, and entertainment to support children in Gaza. Colors for Gaza sets up art workshops, educational programs, and entertainment events designed to provide joy, support and learning opportunities amidst challenging circumstances. The initial crowdfunding target of 1.500 dollars was quickly met and subsequently raised to 5.000 dollars. Encouragingly, this new target is currently also exceeded.
The second campaign boosted by Build Palestine is collecting funds for Gaza Education Hub, an initiative that looks to support displaced university students in southern Gaza, providing them with the necessary equipment to continue learning. To achieve this Gaza Education Hub wants to establish safe learning spaces, powered by solar energy, and to provide continuous teaching support to ensure continuity of education. Impact Hub Amman and Impact Hub Bradford are joining the cause for this crowdfunding campaign, in an effort to combat donor fatigue within the Build Palestine network. It’s an approach that appears to be working, as the current goal of 7.000 dollars is met and subsequently got raised to 15.000 dollars.
For those looking to contribute, there are plenty of options. The breathing center of all grassroots efforts is the online community started by Build Palestine, called Under The Olive Tree. It's a place of exchange for Palestinians in the region, but also those abroad, as well as sympathisers worldwide. The community offers regular webinars on a variety of topics, and aims to be an online hub for all impact-related causes in Palestine.