PARD

PARD stands for Popular Aid for Relief and Development. In Lebanon, there are a huge number of Palestinian refugees. Many have settled in the official UN camps. Others have settled in more informal areas, known to many as "gatherings". These areas do not receive the same aid and benefits as the official camps do, so PARD works to bring relief and development projects to these neighborhoods. One thing they are working on right now is a composting project. They are very focused on environmental issues, and hope to raise awareness about re-using organic trash as compost to reduce the amount of garbage straining the infrastructure. They plan to train women in the community to compost regularly and then go on to get the farmers involved as well. Last week they showed us their pilot compost project. They are super scientific about it and even hired a Palestinian agricultural engineer to help them get everything set up!

After we saw the compost bin and garden, we sat for coffee and fruit and heard more from the woman whose garden is benefiting from this compost. She grew up in a farming family, and her father used compost so it is something she really believes in. (P.S. It was a gorgeous day and as we sat on the balcony we could see the bright blue ocean in the distance).

PARD is also very involved in children's activities in the gatherings. They have developed many different puppet shows to teach children about important issues such as health, drugs and environmentalism. They have a show about a kid whose tooth hurts but is afraid to go to the dentist. That sort of thing. This puppet is called "Shar Shar" which literally means "Evil Evil" (Double Evil!). He has a small package of fireworks pinned to his shirt because in this show he is tempting the children to play with fireworks. Fireworks are ubiquitous on holidays here and often there are young, young kids playing with them in the streets. Obviously, the potential for mishap is huge.

This is Fadiya and if she lived in the U.S. she would be a dumpster-diver for sure. I've never met anyone in this region so sold out on environmental issues. Once she got talking about recycling and composting, she did not stop! I was so inspired by her. She also got on to the topic of youth drug use in Lebanon and we learned a lot from her. She likes to play the tree puppet in the shows and yell "Don't cut me!"