Jerusalem24 – Over the course of over two years, Altaawunyaat /Cooperatives launched a permanent popular market to help youth cooperatives and small farmers market their fresh organic products.
Rami Massad, an organizer, says a cooperative is a group of people who decide to work together through organizing economical projects to improve their social and economical lives. It’s led by joint funds, and is very important in the Palestinian context, economically, socially, and politically.
He adds, “Politically, cooperatives are essential to protect our land from seizure, settlements, and boycott Israeli products,”.
Altaawunyaat is now working with 15 youth groups in different locations in the West Bank, members of the groups are mostly youth, unemployed, and fresh graduates, who take part to improve their financial situations.
The point of the cooperatives is to fight unemployment and provide opportunities for ambitious youth.
The cooperatives also aim to facilitate the marketing of other farmers’ products and help farmers with the resources and materials to start.
The cooperatives Rami and other organizers initiated target agricultural products and farmers, providing Palestinian organic produce.
With the inflammation in the market, due to political events in the world, cooperatives are providing a fair price, far from the everyday-changing prices in the market. Rami says “The prices have been the same since the cooperatives started almost two years ago.”.
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