Tent of Nations

NOTES FROM DAOUD - The political situation is tenser now; many people are waiting for what is going to happen at the end of this month. It is becoming a daily subject to talk about, although all political windows seem to be closed, and September is a bad month for the Palestinians.  But, still miracles might happen.  Our situation is becoming more critical after the confiscation of the hill west of the Tent of Nations.  Towers for electricity were installed, roads were built to connect the settlements together, and more houses are being built in those settlements. We have to expect the worst but still hope for the best.  By the end of this year, we will finish almost all projects that will help the Tent of Nations to be self-sustainable and to function even if it will be totally isolated from the city of Bethlehem.  All funds we received from our Friends of Tent of Nations North America were spent on developing the infrastructure as well as for the educational programs we are running - the women’s education center and the children’s summer camp.  In terms of infrastructure, with the funds we received from FOTONNA, we built cisterns for rain water collection, increasing the capacity of rain water storage from 200 cubic meters to 650 cubic meters.  We bought machines and equipment to help in cultivation and planting more fields to increase the land production which will help to bring the Tent of Nations within the coming years to be totally financially independent. The Tent of Nations farm started to produce crops, and our gift shop is full of products the farm is producing.  The products are sold to guest groups.  The wine press we received donated through FOTONNA helped us in doing the processing of the grapes much easier and more efficiently than ever before. A first-aid facility has been developed on the farm, and next week a medical student is coming to give our five long-term volunteers a first-aid course for two weeks.  Our maintenance workshop is still under development, and we hope to have it functioning very soon. We are hoping to install a small wind turbine still this year to help in producing power, especially in the winter months. We are expanding with more long-term volunteers staying at the Tent of Nations between six months and a year, plus all the others who are coming for a short time.  More electrical power is needed, and a small wind turbine for three KW will solve the problem.  Another upcoming project is a filter machine to re-use the gray water for irrigation. All those projects are making the Tent of Nations very soon self-sufficient, and it will help the project to keep going. In June we had the apricot harvest camp; volunteers helped in picking the apricots and apples.  We made jam, and now it is sold in our gift shop. We had a very busy but also a wonderful summer with the programs we offered.  The last two weeks of July we had the children’s summer camp.  Over 40 children participated from the Bethlehem area, including the three refugee camps.  Twelve international volunteers helped in offering creative workshops for kids including painting on stones, music, drama, story writing and others. In August we had the almond harvest camp, and in September the grape harvest camp. Regarding the women’s project, we had a break for three months during the school holiday, but even then Jihan had a couple of workshops during that time.  We will start the courses again next week. It is wonderful to see how the project is growing.  We thank God for all what we were able to achieve in a very difficult and unstable situation.  We thank you all for your support and solidarity. In the summer months, 1,912 people came to visit the Tent of Nations from different countries, including Israel.  We are happy to see more visitors coming to see and learn about our situation and also about our way of action. With Gratitude – Daoud Nassar