Friends of the Earth Middle East is delighted to report that we have won the 2010 Euro-Med Award for Dialogue between Cultures. This is an annual prize, sponsored by the Anna Lindh Euro Med Foundation and Fondazione Mediterraneo, which recognizes the achievements of individuals and organizations working for the promotion of intercultural dialogue, with this year's specific theme being Intercultural Dialogue for Ecological Sustainability.
Network members in the 43 countries across the Euro-Med Region nominated FoEME as the best candidate for this year’s award; we are honored with this important regional endorsement of our work.
An especially fun and artistic Community GIS youth camp took place in July at Givat Haviva, Israel, with Water Trustees from 5 Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian "Good Water Neighbor" communities. The youth learnt from each others presentations about the environment in each of the communities and invented slogans for raising awareness, such as: "Today's Pollution is Tomorrow's Rain".
Together they toured the area of the rehabilitated Alexander River and painted a fantastic collage under the guidance of the artist Daliya Bar Amotz from Kibutz Maabarot. The painting / collage was on display during the Alexander River Festival in the end of August.
The Community GIS project is supported by the European Union's Partnerships for Peace program.
On August 9, 2010 FoEME co-organized a study tour with the Hebron-Be'er Sheva-HaBesor river coalition, a residents' coalition that FoEME helped create as part of our Good Water Neighbors project. The streams in the river basin face serious pollution by industrial and municipal waste. On the tour, local Palestinian and Israeli representatives visited the polluted stream from the Green Line all the way to the Gaza–Israel fence. Along the journey, residents from Palestinian Yatta, Bedouin communities in Israel and the Jewish Israeli communities of Meitar and Eshkol Regional Council all told the same story – the negative impacts of the polluted stream on their drinking water, health and the environment.
Coalition members agreed to send a delegation of residents to meet with World Bank officials in Jerusalem and the respective water authorities in Israel and Palestine calling on them to take immediate action regarding solutions to this serious health and environmental problem.
On Sunday, August 15, 2010, FoEME hosted its 3rd “Big Jump” into the Lower Jordan River to raise awareness to the plight of this shared resource in the Middle East. FoEME's three co-directors and staff, together with mayors from the region, and Palestinian and Israeli youth from our Good Water Neighbors communities, all joined in the event with the common call to rehabilitate the Lower Jordan River.
This symbolic jump is modeled after the “Big Jump 2005-2010-2015” in Europe, where this year, on July 11, 2010, 250 official “Big Jumps” took place across Europe to raise awareness about their river basins.
Braving the unbearable heat in the Jordan Valley, youth from the 8 Jordanian Good Water Neighbors communities gathered together in the Sharhabil bin Hassneh EcoPark this summer for a series of youth camps aimed at raising environmental awareness in the region.
Youth visited the Ziglab Dam area, toured the EcoPark, learned about the importance of nature conservation and restoration, heard lectures about their local water resources, and engaged in clean up activities throughout the park. Judging by the rate of email and telephone number exchanges, a good time was had by all!
The Good Water Neighbors project is supported by USAID, SIDA and the Belgium Foreign Ministry's Peace Building Desk.
FoEME is pleased to announce the launch of its Jordan River Peace Park Interactive Map. The map provides visitors with both visual and written information on the many sites of natural and cultural heritage that make up the Jordan River Peace Park inititative including the Jordan River, Yarmouk River, the four entrance gates, the hydroelectric power station / visitors center, rehabilitated wetlands and bird watching facilities, historic train station, ecolodges, the Three Bridges, Peace Island borders and the proposed area of the park.
The Jordan River Peace Park Project is supported by the Blaustein Foundation and the Jewish Funders Network / Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.
As part of our new Transboundary Advocacy to Parliamentarians over shared water issues ("TAP") project, over the past two months, adult groups were established in nearly all of the 25 Good Water Neighbor communities.
The TAP project is setting up small groups of selected adults in Israel, Jordan and Palestine, so that they may learn about their shared water resources, such as the Mountain Aquifer and the Jordan River, and then advocate for cross-border solutions in the media and in meetings to be arranged with decision-makers in Jerusalem, Amman and Ramallah.
The "Transboundary Advocacy to Parliamentarians" project is supported by the European Union's Partnerships for Peace program.
Visit our Jordan River press coverage page for recent articles from Jordan Times, National Geographic News Watch, Green Prophet, Christian Post, Radio All for Peace and more.
The Jordan River Rehabilitation Project is supported by USAID, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Green Environment Fund and the Global Nature Fund / Ursula Merz Foundation.
It is with great sadness that FoEME learned of the passing away of Peter Gubser of ANERA on September 2nd.
Peter was a great friend of FoEME's; we will miss him
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