Rawa, the creative Palestinian communities fund, who recently released their first ever grant list, focusing on 23 community grassroots projects, are now underway. All are operating under Rawa’s belief in the ‘collective power, participation and understanding that ‘Palestinians do not need charity, but dignity and agency’

Most of the projects are from informal and unregistered community groups. In Rawa’s model, ‘people can come together to dream and implement creative community development ideas without the usual restrictions of humanitarian aid and development, such as formal registration and thematic, restricted funding.’

Rawa’s grantees are located in their four ‘cluster areas:’ Gaza, West Bank, ’48, and Jerusalem, with several initiatives underway within each cluster.

The announcement of the community development geared grantees was underpinned by Rawa’s almost five year local and global collaboration, and according to Rawa, serve as the core of the fund’s holistic grants and support model.

Mais Al Saqqagrant, coordinator and support team member for Gaza states, ‘Rawa’s supported projects and initiatives come from the community in order to benefit the community—this is the best way to strengthen the local Palestinian social fabric.’

Read more about how the grantees were chosen: globalfundcommunityfoundations.org