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Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC)

Woman holding a lamb, Palestine.PARC was established in 1983 and has become a leading non-governmental organization in the fields of rural development, environmental protection and women’s empowerment. They work with more than 160,000 rural and marginalized Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PARC promotes sustainable development and aims to build greater food security at the household, community and territorial levels.

Supporting Palestinian farmers is crucial as Palestinian agriculture suffers from a lack of open access to markets, scattered land holdings, a perennial shortage of water and land confiscation. These problems are tied to the Palestinians experience of the Israeli occupation—border closures, the Separation Wall, water usurpation, and settlement expansion.

PARC works with women heads of households to use rooftops, backyards and small scraps of land between buildings for gardening and animal husbandry, including the use of water saving technologies. The women are provided with vegetable and fruit seeds and seedlings, as well as with small animals such as rabbits and pigeons.

PARC promotes sustainable development and improves access to food through multiple initiatives like urban home gardens that are today found throughout Gaza and projects such as the Farm-to-Table program linking Palestinian farmers with consumers in Gaza.


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