IPS – Aid Hurting Palestinians

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  • Aid Hurting Palestinians | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/aid-hurting-palestinians

    Local food for local people. That’s the idea behind Sharaka (‘partnership’, in Arabic), an entirely volunteer-run, Palestinian organisation that aims to bring locally grown products directly to Palestinian dinner tables.

    “Our vision is a food sovereign Palestine where we’re economically independent, we use our local resources and we support each other. That leads to human development. It’s local economy. Through a local economy and a local food system, that’s how you build community,” said volunteer and Sharaka co-founder Aisha Mansour.

    Mansour said that while it has often been a struggle to convince both Palestinian farmers and consumers to participate, Sharaka has organised several successful farmers’ markets in Ramallah, and continues to raise awareness about the benefits of eating locally.

    The group has also refused to take any international aid to support its work.

    “It’s a broken system. Everybody knows that,” Mansour told IPS, about the international aid and development model currently in place. “Local people who know their community, who want to develop and support, they do things. That’s how they develop. That’s how development happens; it’s not an externally imposed thing.”

    #Palestine #développement #alimentation