Does Your Purchase Support Palestinians? Or How Can You Support Palestinians by Shopping?

We get this question all the time: if I buy from Handmade Palestine, "Do you support Palestinians or donate money or support any Palestinian causes?""

YES! ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!

For many businesses, it's a marketing ploy to say they donate a percentage of the profits is donated, because if the profits are 20% of the sale and then 5% of that 20% is donated, it's really not much money. And it sounds great to keep saying that you donate a percentage of the profits. But in our work at Handmade Palestine, it's not a marketing ploy, so let me break it down so you can see how exactly we work and where your money goes.

We came into existence 8, maybe even 9, years ago as a project to generate income for a non profit in Ramallah that was working to conserve precious Palestinian land and wildlife as well as our natural heritage. No one wants to fund nature in Palestine and it makes sense when there is such intense humanitarian need but it also means our education, culture and nature are all left behind. And so we decided to create a project for income generation to fund our environmental work. Even though we were forced to register in the US as a business so we can accept paypal and visa on our site, we are a Palestine based project that functions as a non profit. What does that mean?

It means that I've been an 8 year long volunteer with a team of volunteers. It means no one is profiting from the business except the artisans who are crafting and creating. It means we pay fulfillment space and our online expenses like the website and visa fees and then EVERY OTHER PENNY comes to Palestine and goes in to this local economy. It means that the profits are reinvested in the project, the artisans (we gave a grant this year to a special needs project!) and to Mashjar Juthour of course--I mean we exist because we were their income generation project originally.

So let's break down some numbers. We have helped create 3 women's groups in the last year. Together they employ around 100 women. We work with another 32 artisan groups, each with a minimum of 3 artisans in the group and most with around 40. One cooperative we work with had 32 members and around 1800 artisans in those 32 member workshops. We estimate that we are the sole income provider for around 100 people and a partial income provider to around 600 on a monthly basis. Our subscription boxes also allow us to support around 50 different stores and vendors. We print everything in Palestine and even make our own boxes for gift sets here because we know the Palestinian economy is really devastated with Israeli closures, raids and full control of our borders and imports and exports.

So YES you are contributing directly to the Palestinian economy, supporting Palestinians in sustaining livelihoods AND supporting Palestinian causes when you shop from Handmade Palestine. Oh, forgot to mention that together we fundraised over 8,000usd in donations to Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza as well. So folks, THANK YOU and let's keep supporting Palestinians.

Until liberation.