Past program · West Bank, Palestine
Empowering Women in Palestine
Using lessons learned by partnering with coffee communities, On the Ground helped create microloans for female entrepreneurs, rebuilt a women's center, and replanted olive trees throughout Palestine's West Bank.
The work in Palestine grew out of the Run Across Palestine, an ultra-marathon in which runners covered more than 100 miles over five days across the West Bank alongside Palestinian olive farmers. The relationships built during that run carried into longer-term support for women's economic organizing and for olive groves — the equivalent, in this landscape, of the coffee farms at the center of On the Ground's other programs.
The projects were chosen by the farming families themselves: 5,000 olive tree saplings planted across the West Bank, micro-loans for 14 women farmers, and university scholarships for students from partner communities. A women's center damaged in the conflict was rebuilt so that organizing, training and childcare could continue under one roof.
Olive trees are both livelihood and permanence for these families. Replanting restores income that takes years to mature, and it is a statement that the families intend to stay.
Final results
What this program delivered
- Olive tree saplings planted in the West Bank
- 5,000
- Women farmers who received micro-loans
- 14
- Run across the West Bank with olive farmers
- 100+ miles
- The People and The Olive, documenting the campaign
- 1 film
This program is part of our history
Explore where On the Ground is working today and how past community-led partnerships shaped our current programs.