We did our best and it mattered. When faced with the immense loss of life and destruction of Gaza neighborhoods in December/January, we held “Sweep Down the Walls” teleconferences every three days for three weeks to put peacemakers in Gaza and peacemakers in Israel on the phone line with dozens of Rebuilding Alliance supporters across the U.S. and Europe. They told the concerned audience what they were seeing and brainstormed with listeners to do our best to help safeguard families in Gaza and in Israel and make this stop. YOU are the ones we thank for making it possible to connect when they most needed us — and we ask for your support now.
As the assault ended, we listened hard to our friends at the Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative who said, “Start with soccer,” because soccer immediately draws neighborhoods together and helps to heal the trauma each person experienced. So in August, despite the blockade, the Rebuilding Alliance successfully installed the first unit of a community center in time for the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament! Then our small grant stretched to install lights out to the field, and to provide new sand, fully levelled! And in September, Cindy and Craig Corrie and their delegation personally delivered soccer uniforms to youth league teams in the last week of the tournament. Now we’ve received a small grant to get doors, wall cement, and windows to these communities in an innovative strategy to lift the blockade. We have YOU, our committed supporters, to thank.
Ours is a holistic approach to peace-building, combining community-directed rebuilding with grassroots and diplomatic advocacy. We stretch your every dollar to seed endeavors that make a difference and grow. Trust builds with each rebuilding project and draws upon a grassroots network to keep the projects safe.
Twice this past year, people at the State Department have told us we are amazingly effective. The Secretary of State sent her highest advisor to our kindergarten in Al Aqaba village. Now we put them to the test as we work to lift new eviction orders and assure this village its right to issue building permits. We’re using their case to raise concern about the steep rise in demolition orders overall in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Your financial support makes it possible for us to engage diplomatic assistance in this and all our projects, and shore up this assistance when you call your senators and representatives to ask them to use their influence on your behalf.
We ask for your help. And yes, even in these challenging financial times, we ask you to stretch your budget to include the Rebuilding Alliance in your generosity. We won’t take government funding; we proudly rely on grassroot donations. Your support sustains us. Truly, our accomplishments are the result of your gifts!
Thank you very much for your dedication to our work.
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director
P.S. Here are the Dreams we will Make Real with your Support:
Forming a team to enter the Global Social Venture Competition
In 2003, our social venture plan to finance and build Palestinian neighborhoods was a semi-finalist. We are now forming a team to develop a bold plan: “Micro-Mortgaging: a World-Wide Investment Plan to Help War-Torn Neighborhoods Rebuild.” Call me at 650 440-9667 if you would like to join our team.
Peace Builder Toolkit –
The Rebuilding Alliance will present a hands-on workshop at M.I.T. to design and test a Peace Builder Toolkit for Congressional Districts using cloud computing (Salesforce.com), GovTrack, and Google maps. We are inviting peace and justice organizations in Boston to join in a pilot project.
First Birthing Center in the Jordan River Valley -
Al Aqaba dreams of converting its 2 room clinic into a birthing center to serve 50,000 Palestinians in the West Bank’s Area C. Our proposal won “Most Donors” on GlobalGiving in Great Britain. The Rotary Clubs of Nazareth, Israel and Woodside / Portola Valley CA are offering a matching grant for phase 2. The British Nasheed music group, Aashiq Al Rasul, is planning a charity concert at the Birmingham Town Center! And we’ll need to press for diplomatic assistance to deliver the 1st ever ambulance with incubator.
Abir’s Garden: A Safe Place to Grow
After a little girl was killed, Israeli and Palestinian Combatants for Peace asked our help to build playgrounds in her memory – we’ll start construction of the 2nd playground in January. Let’s help them build 20 more — and make them safe using the Leahy Amendment and through recognition from Congress.
Soccer now, a Community Center soon, Open the Blockade and let’s build!
Next we design a Gym / Community Center using locally-available materials. Of note: Our Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza has been halted by the siege for three years. We’ve received a seed grant to work with an Israeli peace group in Sderot Israel to purchase doors, cement, and windows for Gaza and press forward with this new, local-benefit approach to ending the blockade.
Our Fair-trade Store
When people taste our organic olive oil, fair trade from Palestine the whole discourse changes. Our store, with three delicious kinds of olive oil, za’atar, sun-dried couscous, and even olive oil soap, helps the Rebuilding Alliance pay our rent while providing a fair price to the farmers and a scholarship fund for their children. Do you know a store near you who might like to carry Za’atar? Call us!
Magic at our home office.
We share a beautiful workspace and are delighted to fill our office with 5-10 volunteer interns each quarter. They come from 5 countries + the US: seasoned professionals, new graduates, and high school students working on rebuilding projects, legal research, contact congress initiatives, writing and social networking campaigns, and marketing our organic olive oil and za’atar. We dream of hiring an operations manager and renting more desk-space to grow.
