A matter of months, Itimad Al-Saifi, a woman in her fifties from the village of Kofr Aabush in Tulkarem, found herself alone with one acre of land she did not know how to manage and a depression so deep she could barely leave her home. When our team first visited, we offered support. She refused. She had never worked outside her home. She did not believe she had the skills to run even a small business. That refusal led us to ask a bigger question: how many women like Itimad were out there, invisible, struggling alone?
We surveyed marginalised areas across the northern West Bank. The answer was staggering. Dozens of women (between the ages of 22 and 50) were living in poverty, isolated, without support.
We did not give up on Itimad. In 2016, we returned to her village and held training workshops. Nine other women joined her. Our agricultural experts helped her fence her land to protect it from wild boars. Volunteers helped her prepare the soil and build a small greenhouse and a hut where she could rest. We provided water tanks, an irrigation system, and the full foundation for her project.
Then came the hard part: Itimad had to take over. The land needed care, harvesting, and marketing. We stepped back, unsure if she would manage or if her grief would pull her back under. Weeks passed. When our team returned, we found a woman we barely recognised. Itimad was in her field, picking eggplants and peppers, loading them into a car bound for the market. In her small hut, she had lit a fire and was brewing wild thyme tea—grown with her own hands. She was smiling.
Today, Itimad is supporting other women the way she was once supported.
I faced difficult challenges and did not expect to be where I am today. Joining the programme helped me to overcome psychological, economic and social difficulties while learning new skills. Today, I can only say that life has come back to me, and I have begun to feel the value of my existence.
