Near East Foundation

The encroaching Sahara has desiccated large swathes of previously fertile Malian farmland. Traditional agricultural techniques are poorly adapted to these new conditions, which have caused widespread crop failure and starvation. NEF works with rural farmers to teach efficient irrigation technique and promote the use of drought-hardy crops.

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Residents of Casablanca’s extensive peri-urban slums live in dire poverty and squalor. Unemployment is extremely high; as a result there is often little hope for outward mobility. NEF staff provide training and counseling services to at-risk youth to help them find and capitalize on opportunities for jobs.

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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 beekeeper, here standing among his winter hives.

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As part of our al-Tamkeen project to help revitalize government-designated “poverty-pockets” in Jordan, NEF mobilized community organizations to put together a number of public-service projects, including this playground in Zarqa.

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NEF operates the only healthcare facility in the entire Dar-es-Salaam refugee camp. It provides diagnostic, pharmaceutical, routine, and emergency services for the camp’s inhabitants, and specializes in pre- and post-natal care.

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Local women gather outside an NEF-established women’s microcredit bank in Mali.

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NEF also operates microfinancial services in Sudan, where we provide small loans to help skilled IDPs reestablish themselves in 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 education classes in rural Morocco. The people above are learning to read and write, a skill many lack in the remote and underdeveloped High Atlas Mountains.

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