NEF (Near East Foundation) -- 2007 Annual Report -- Country Report; West Bank

The two main initiatives in which NEF (Near East Foundation) is engaged--kindergarten development for West Bank children and olive oil revitalization for Palestinian farmers--received welcome boosts in 2007 from the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations' food aid agency.

NEF's preschool feeding, conducted jointly with the World Food Program, provided meals to approximately 10,000 kids in 130 kindergartens in Nablus, Tubas, and Jenin in the northern West Bank. The six-month program was valued at over $400,000. This coming year, the program is planned to expand to feed approximately 70,000 children in more than 500 kindergartens and primary schools in the most food insecure areas in both the North and South West Bank, including Hebron/Khalil. Food preparation will create over 1,000 new jobs for mostly women workers at participating women centers and bakeries. The project is anticipated to last two years.

NEF's olive-oil program, also supported by the World Food Program, helped more than 2,000 olive growers sell 253 metric tons of olive oil ( including15 tons of organic extra virgin olive oil). Restrictions on movement, shipping and communications make collection and marketing of production difficult. The WFP-sponsored program permitted growers to continue to restore and improve their olive cultivation, a significant contributor to the region's economy.

KINDERGARTENERS

Recent UN studies indicate that only 30 percent of Palestinian children are enrolled in pre-school; over 40 percent of five-year-olds are anemic and nearly 76 percent of Palestinian children one-to-six years of age show signs of being or becoming vitamin A deficient. Thirty-five percent of all Palestinian families are food insecure and another 27 percent are vulnerable to food insecurity.

Consequently, NEF has sought over the past four years to improve conditions for Palestinian pre-schoolers, simultaneously increasing kindergarten quality and enrollment in Nablus and a "cluster" of surrounding villages where we concentrate our activities. This effort expanded significantly last year as we contracted with the World Food Program to prepare and deliver food to eligible kindergartens, and a partner organization provided funds for renovating several kindergartens. The World Food Program provides us with flour, sugar and other commodities,which we deliver to five women's centers and two area bakeries for food preparation; this has created 90 new jobs for women paid with commodities. They prepare snacks which we then distribute to the kindergartens; last year, approximately 10,000 children received a daily, mid-morning ration of fortified foods that helped them grow and increased their school performance and attendance. In addition, we have renovated three kindergartens, selected based on a needs assessment. Improvements include hygienic bathrooms, new furniture, library improvements, upgraded playground and toys as well as new front entrances and freshly-painted walls. Over 500 children benefited. We also provided educational materials and teacher training.

This is all part of our plan to develop a model kindergarten for the West Bank covering all the basics--health, education, recreation--. We are conducting a comparative study on the requirements for a stimulating and safe environment for poor children in both rural and urban areas in the West Bank. And of course, we want to improve kindergarten teaching as well.

OLIVE OIL DEVELOPMENT

Our aim was 200 tons of extra virgin oil this past season, helping small farmers and their families by the production of more and higher quality olive oil for local consumption and export. We built upon the previous year's pilot project, teaching advanced practices and providing modern tools and equipment to 160 farmers in 14 northern villages in the Nablus, Tubas, and Assira areas.

In this second phase, June 2006 through May 2007, funded by the United Nations Development Program, 453 farmers and five olive oil presses benefited from our program. NEF provided advanced farming equipment, rehabilitated five mills, and created two service centers and two collection centers.

The service centers provided harvesting and pruning equipment for all farmers to use as well as mobile laboratory equipment. Collection centers offered stainless steel tanks with 75 metric ton collective storage, as well as mobile laboratory equipment and an on-site lab for testing quality. All of which had the desired effect of opening local and international marketing channels for farmers. More details--

Equipping farmers with the best tools during harvesting--By late October farmers received motor saws, electric harvesting machines and other equipment as well as on-the-job training in their use. This including problematic areas near the Separation Wall where farmers were endangered and needed to finish the job in the shortest time possible with the least manual labor.
Continuing agricultural extension services and modernization--To further institutionalize agriculture services, training and support groups were created for regional farmers with the goal of future duplication in other parts of the Palestinian Territories.
Increasing olive oil storage capacity from 11 tons to at least 56 tons-Adding to the previous years' four new stainless steel tanks and replacing plastic containers proven to spoil oil; this time, 14 tanks were distributed with volumes of four metric tons each to protect the oil and maintain quality.
Assisting farmers to set production plans for next season during a deteriorating political and economic situation.

MEDICINES & MORE

Long-time partner organization contributed shipments of vital drugs valued at over $500,000 in August and again in November, and NEF-West Bank distributed them to local medical facilities. We collaborated with the government ministry of health, mobile clinics, charitable organizations and medical relief centers, mainly serving the poor. They included antibiotics for children and adults and allergy relief for children.

Again teaming with a partner organization, NEF celebrated Ramadan and the following Eid al-Fiter feast by conducting a campaign of food distribution to agricultural communities suffering high unemployment. Packages contained such basic food items as milk, cheese, canned beans, lentils, tomato paste, pasta, tehina sauce, halawa, jam, and sugar. Poor families received 500 food packages and 570 packages of dairy products, while 400 packages of sweets went to kindergarten children.

NEF's environmentally-friendly Asira landfill project continued to provide an alternative to illegal dumping of solid waste along West Bank roadsides, benefiting eight villages in the Nablus area and their 20,000 residents.

NEF's housing credit program, in partnership with the Arab Bank for Cooperation and Development, continued providing loans for construction and repair to alleviate the Palestinian housing crisis. Since 1998, 613 loans valued in excess of $8 million have been granted with a 99.7 percent payback rate.