How Palestinian women's self-sufficiency blossoms in this new garden
A garden built by the Cedar Environmental for Soufra Kitchen, a catering company run by Palestinian women at Lebanon's Burj el-Barajneh, enables the group to grow organic produce.
The sun was bright and hot on the rooftop of the Women's Program Association (WPA) building in Lebanon's Burj el-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp. Upon the rooftop were vegetables and herbs growing in planters in every direction.
The garden was built by Cedar Environmental for Soufra Kitchen, a catering company run by Palestinian women in the camp so that they can grow organic produce and use it in their work.
Soufra Kitchen was founded nearly four years ago as part of a program for the WPA by Mariam Shaar — a Palestinian refugee born in Burj el-Barajneh — in the hopes of allowing more women to work and support their families.
“We started to make a survey with UNRWA on needs for women in all of the camps in all of Lebanon,” Shaar told Al-Monitor. She added, “When we finished the survey, we found that women would like to work and find a job to support their families, like through cooking.”
