#bayti

I was happy to address the Bayti delegation brought by Seeds of Peace this afternoon to Ramallah. A group of American and UK Seeds visiting Israel and Palestine to learn about the realities and complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict first-hand. Please act on your new information.

Thanks to Clarke Reeves for organizing.

On Friday we visited a really cool project in Kenitra, about 30 minutes north of Rabat. The organization, BAYTI ("my home" in Arabic) is already a partner of GlobalGiving through our corporate partnership with Dell. But we'd love to have their projects listed on our main site, so Shonali and I were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the organization, and to tour the project they plan to list on GG for the next Open Challenge in September: a farm school.

The school, home to 35 teenagers from poor neighborhoods or broken families, provides stability, skills training, and the means to an education for children who might otherwise have turned to drugs or the streets. The students take classes in reading/writing Arabic and maths, and work on the farm year-round. When they graduate, they will have also learned a trade -- farming -- that they can use to set up businesses. There are plans to expand the program to include more extracurricular options and social activities, which we think is great. 

During our visit, the project leader showed us the vegetable gardens, the cows and chickens being raised, and the new fruit orchards being planted. The farm school has been operational for 7 years, but the staff is always looking for ways to make improvements. We think these are great goals for them to consider as they join the Open Challenge!