Near East Foundation

Climate change and land degradation have desiccated large swathes of fertile Malian farmland. NEF works with rural families to introduce new crops and irrigation techniques that improve livelihoods and resilience to climate change.

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Residents of Casablanca’s extensive peri-urban slums live in dire poverty. Unemployment is extremely high and there is often little hope for outward mobility. NEF staff works with at-risk youth to help them gain skills for employment and to organize civic action to improve their communities.

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Sudanese children stand outside an NEF-funded school in Dar-es-Salaam’s el-Rabwa camp. The area is home to over 40,000 internally displaced people; many of them have access to neither clean water nor education.

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As part of a land reclamation program, the Egyptian government has relocated tens of thousands of people to the Lake Nasr area in far southern Egypt. These farmers teamed up with NEF to study and implement efficient agricultural technique in their drought-prone region.

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NEF sponsors microenterprise development for aspiring entrepreneurs in Armenia—like this fruit dryer. Microenterprises serve the dual purposes of address social needs and creating jobs and income.

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As part of our Local Economic Development Project in Jordan, NEF mobilized community organizations to develop businesses to create jobs, generate income for their members, and to support their charitable works. This farming operation--including 40 greenhouses and a desalinization unit for irrigation water--is one such project.

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From 2002 to 2010, NEF operated the only healthcare facility serving the 45,000 inhabitants of the Dar-es-Salaam refugee camp. The clinic provides diagnostic, pharmaceutical, routine, and emergency services for the camp’s inhabitants, and specializes in pre- and post-natal care. In 2010, NEF handed over operation of the clinic to a local organization, under which it has continued to fulfill its critical mission.

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Members of a women's credit committee in Mali discuss their balances. NEF's microcredit activities in northern Mali have matured into a women-operated microcredit institutions that has loaned more than $8 million to 36,000 women in the past 13 years.

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NEF also provides microcredit in Sudan, where small loans help internally displaced people establish income-generating activities.

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NEF’s Qudorat project sponsors local artisans’ cooperatives and other community-based organizations in Jordan, with a particular focus on women’s empowerment.

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NEF’s kindergarten feeding project in the Palestinian territories provided school lunches for 63,000 children throughout the West Bank and created jobs for hundreds of women to produce and pack the food.

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These primary school students are from Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains region, where access to education is scarce, particularly for girls. Before NEF began work in ten local communities, girls’ attendance in primary school averaged 10%; 5 years of community organizing and education reform brought it to nearly 100.

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NEF also sponsors adult literacy classes in rural Morocco. Involving parents in the education process through literacy and through PTAs not only builds their skills but also helps them become advocates for their children's education.

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NEF is working with villagers in eastern Morocco to map their watersheds to identify opportunities for improving agricultural water management.

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In northern Mali, NEF works with communities to "harvest" rainwater in order to create new opportunities for growing crops.

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Female ex-combatants in Sudan confer with an NEF trainer to develop new business ideas and business plans as an economic alternative to fighting.

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