JORDAN
An ambitious, multi-year, multi-million dollar Qudorat ("capacities" in Arabic) project aimed at nothing less than strengthening Jordan's civil society, boosting non-governmental, community-based organizations and their traditional services, while enhancing their income generation. It is NEF's largest project ever in Jordan since we began working in the country in the 1930s and consolidates the past 15 years of capacity-building with community-based organizations there.

Another major thrust was the creation of new fish farms in the Jordan Valley, working with small farmers to raise fish in existing irrigation ponds for both home consumption and sale. Further, NEF has been busily planning with the Jordanian government for a large aquaculture/fish farming program for the Zarka Governorate, creating a major center for aquacultural promotion in the region. It would provide recreational facilities, increase water availability for bio-saline agriculture, promote environment education and applications throughout the country. Such changes ultimately could impact up to 80 percent of Jordan Valley and Zarka Basin farmers.

LESOTHO

MALI
Building on work going back to 1984, NEF continued its intense engagement with a band of 127 villages in Mali's northern Sahel, an area plagued by poverty, degraded land, sparse rainfall, and the encroaching desert. NEF's multifaceted, simultaneous strategy employed environmental and natural resource conservation and management; micro-credit; community organization; information; food security; and decentralization in consonance with government policy.

Eighteen new, viable, democratic associations formed over the past year and became engaged in the social and economic development of their villages. Activities largely centered on potable water, natural resource management, and health. Significantly all but one association included women, in stark contrast to the cultural tendency toward their systematic exclusion and marginalization, and representative of "remarkable breakthroughs" in female gains this year. NEF's credit activities also centered on assisting the financial gains of women.

MOROCCO
In the High Atlas Mountains in partnership with the US State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Moroccan Department of Education, NEF promoted the education of girls, providing continuing education and encouraging the involvement of local parents and teachers in activities that promote education and community development. In just nine months of intense activity NEF produced a virtual revolution in the perception of education among villagers in the eight participating communities.

Villages that initially had refused to join in were fast becoming models of educational reform. Virtually empty classrooms filled. Those enrolled remained for the term. Over 300 adults--an extraordinary 60-plus percent of them women--entered adult literacy classes. Newly-formed Parent Teacher Associations, joined by women leaders from the villages, collaborated with NEF to encourage education for all and mobilize resources to improve schools and allow local graduates to continue their education in secondary schools in nearby towns. Some PTAs were nearly autonomous and had proved their ability to organize and manage their affairs.

^ back to top

SUDAN
Building on experience with microcredit in Sudan going back to the 1980s, NEF collaborated with the International Fund for Agricultural Development to enhance resiliency to drought, food security, and income generation in two western states. Beneficiaries were the small farmers, livestock keepers, workers and artisans, who comprise 90 percent of the rural population with average annual incomes of only $100 to $150. NEF also introduced credit facilities in New Dar El-Salaam El-Rabwa to reinforce its reproductive health program with income-generating activities that supplement family income, improve nutrition, and increase access to health services.

By the first of the year, NEF's fully operational health clinic, made possible by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, had treated over 33,000 patients since opening in September. The only health center available for the entire settlement of about 45,000 people feeling Sudan's internal conflicts and drought, it had treated another 30,500 six months later. New family planning, prenatal and postnatal care attracted more than 800 patients. Women have been trained in nutrition and hygiene, as midwives and home visitors, benefiting nearly 4,000 families.

Also the NEF project helped local residents plan, manage, and network within their own community, government and non-governmental organizations for needed services, including a severe shortage of potable water for the rapidly-growing population and roofing and equipping the local school.

SWAZILAND
NEF completed a monumental childhood education task underway for two year, the publication of the community training manual, "Growing Children Straight and Strong," funded by UNICEF. Copies of the parenting and early childhood education manual immediately were distributed to all partner organizations, key people representing a cross section of gender, age and area, and selected caregivers. The manual also facilitated follow up HIV testing in a country with the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world--39 percent of adults.

General in-service training for preschool practitioners extended yet further and to preschools involving more than 1,250 children. Training ranged from art making and volunteer counseling and testing, on through when death touches a child, kitchen gardens, speech/hearing problems, and HIV-related topics. Simultaneously business development aimed to establish sustainable income-generating initiatives at the community level through capacity training, resource allocation, and assessment. There were over 200 participants--78 per cent of them female.

WEST BANK
A new landfill site benefited more than 3,500 households and NEF's many environmental actions improved sanitation, increased health, provided jobs, encouraged voluntarism, developed local leadership, and instilled management skills--creating a solid waste disposal model for the entire West Bank. Rehabilitation of the area's olive industry was one of a wide variety of income-generating activities including boosting the number of livestock, dairy product production, and tourism.

Over 2,500 children benefited from nutritional supplements through the "Cup of Milk" program, which this year went to entire families of all kindergartens in the cluster of 14 villages north of Nablus where NEF concentrates its activities. NEF launched health and nutrition awareness for mothers, attracting hundreds of women to workshops. Also the local dairy industry got a boost during a very difficult economic period, assuring employment for milk plant workers and small dairy farmers.

New classrooms were built onto existing schools and in some villages, playgrounds and toilet facilities added. An amphitheater was constructed in Asira al-Shamaliya with a play area and cafeteria for community events and a new folkloric troupe contributed to cultural pride. The poorest in the village of Yasid received clean, potable drinking water and 600 young people got improved centers and programming in Nablus. Ramadan food packages cheered impoverished Palestinian families and nearly a thousand widows, orphans, unemployed, and those with special needs on the Eid Al-Adha feast day.

^ back to top