Abir's Garden Playgrounds for a Safe Place to Grow

This is just a short status report to bring you up to date.   Mohamad Oweda, Palestinian Coordinator for Combatants for Peace called yesterday to update me on the project status.  Combatants for Peace will be meeting this Saturday to set the schedule for the month ahead with completion expected by April, if all goes well.  

"This will be the biggest Abir's Garden of all," said Mohamad Oweda.  "The mayor gave us a full dunum."  A dunum is 1000 sq.meters, a quarter of an acre.

"We will decide together what the day will be for all the Combatants for Peace to be there.  We will be purchasing the semi-finished play equipment from a professional, then working with all the village and our CfP members to finish and install."

I am forwarding them a prospectus for a Palestinian landscape architecture group that would be fun to work with - they've done some very creative playgrounds!   Also, I'm inviting the Combatants for Peace to join in the Pinwheels for Peace program, with their own families and at their meetings in the villages.

Lastly, of note, the Israel side of Combatants for Peace is one of then non-governmental organizations being targeted in an anti-NGO bill designed by Israel's Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and other leaders of the settler Jewish Home and Likud parties.  According to colleagues, "While the pretext for this bill is greater "transparency," what it really does is create a series of new hoops that organizations that criticize Israeli government policy must now jump through or face huge fines."

Thank you again for your support of this project and through it, your support of the important voices of Combatants for Peace and the Villagers in Ein Yanoun.

Sincerely,

Donna

Links:

• Here is Combatants for Peace' new website