Rebuilding Alliance

Send solar-powered lanterns and solar charging systems through Israel's blockade of Gaza to children, so they can study and play safely when the power is out. Two companies, Little Sun TM and Luci Light TM, offer a 2-for-1 matching grant to send twice as many lights to Gaza. A solar system designed by a Gaza engineer, SunBox, can charge a phone, small-laptop, refrigerator or TV, and connect households to the internet. Empower Gaza's next generation, open the blockade, and bring hope to all.

We know how to keep Palestinian neighborhoods standing — and it works. When constituents urge Congress to intervene to ease state-sponsored violence, their calls make all the difference. In this time of crisis, we ask your help to launch an urgent action network to link Israeli & Palestinian peacemakers with peace groups, places of worship, schools and universities, and the U.S. Congress to tell what they are experiencing. Help us continue to bring Palestinian children to speak to Congress.

On their websites, every U.S. Senator and Rep. promises to help constituents resolve urgent issues with U.S. agencies and this is not lobbying. Palestinian homes, schools, and neighborhoods are being harassed and destroyed to push people off their land. But unlike natural disasters, man-made disasters can be prevented. Rebuilding Alliance asks your help to extend ‘friends don’t let friends drive drunk’ Congressional interventions to ease tensions and bring about justice and peace.

More Congressional offices than ever are scheduling with us for briefing meetings with our speakers, in person or by phone. Our record is 54 meetings in one week in Washington DC, with 360 offices asking to meet. In addition, bringing Palestinian children and their parents to Congress to describe what peace means has been the most effective advocacy we've seen. We ask your help to bring everyone on tour because once you meet them and email Congress, their intervention makes all the difference.

Thirty families from Al Aqaba Village asked your help to build affordable homes on the land they own. 95% of Al Aqaba, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, was under demolition order by the Israeli Army. Families want to return home - otherwise their village will cease to exist. Families invested all their savings and Rebuilding Alliance provided financing to help them build new homes in accordance with their village's master plan. Al Aqaba's villagers formed a credit union to issue affordable revolving loans - your gift will keep giving as families repay their loans so more families can start building.

Our journey began with a passionate intern and for two years, the much-anticipated music center in Al Aqaba was a dream coming true. 41 students gather after school to learn violin, viola and cello. Lina Karamali's hard work has created a Center, bringing together a community of people united through music, exploring the value of music in restoring spirit and heart. And after only a few months of playing, the young students were invited to perform at universities. Let's keep this going!

When they first created their master-zoning plan, the Palestinian villagers of Susiya shared a hopeful vision of a future on the land that they own in the West Bank's Area C. Now the villagers, working with two architects, will soon open an architectural design competition to invite architects, designers, planners to transform Susiya's master plan into drawings and 3D models and a speaking tour to inspire the world through good design and community engagement.

Named for the 12th century Islamic philosopher who believed in rationalism over fundamentalism, the Ibn Rush'd Library serves the youth of Al Aqaba Village and the neighboring countryside. With 5000 books, and a good day-to-day program, a visionary team seeks to expand reading programs for children into the countryside by partnering with the Tamer Institute to launch a bookmobile, while expanding the library to provide a resource center for children with speech and reading disabilities.

'Gaza in Color' is a traveling, interactive, exhibition with over 100 original works by Palestinian artists in Gaza. Despite the ongoing 12-year blockade, this exhibition brings the artists' visions and hopes to a broad audience. It includes videotaped interviews and also 'Live from Gaza' teleconferences with the artists and writers. They also directly benefit from the sale of their paintings and prints. (Recently the U.S. government cut aid to UN schools, clinics, and US agencies providing food aid.) Come, host this exhibition, restore humanity through art.

We so look forward to bringing the artists on tour with their paintings in the year ahead.

Children are going hungry in Gaza. Their faces are haunting, their mothers' stories, heartbreaking.Cancer patients are running out of medicines. In August, schools will teach three shifts daily, three children to a desk. In 2018, President Trump cut all forms of US aid to Palestinians including food aid, medical aid, and all aid for education - and there's nothing our Congress can do to override. But there's a way that people can help. Let's begin.

Challenge

12 years of blockade on Gaza means that virtually no exports are allowed. There's widespread darkness with power only recently available for 12hrs/day, rolling blackouts. With no exports, few imports, and no means of production, jobs have plummeted resulting in 55% unemployment, and > 72% unemployment for young people under 30. The unemployment means few can buy local, causing more layoffs... this is economic collapse that the World Bank and the UN warned about. Families need a way to hold on.
Solution

A huge problem- but to paraphrase Nabeel Hamdi, "To do something BIG, start small and start where it counts." Help us begin, child by child, family by family. Each week, our NGO partners will work with a family to deliver nutritional food, solar lights, and rehabilitate their barely-livable homes. Our team will provide goats, chickens to families who can raise animals, plant gardens, and give stipends to employers for 3-month job-training to offer men & women a way to learn as they work for pay.