Farmer

The Hebron region has some of the oldest olive groves in the world. Rumi olive trees (the variety we plant) have grown on this land for thousands of years. Every tree we plant is a continuation of something that was always here.

Al-Majd · Hebron

Amjad

Early forties · Cook · Land owner in Al-Majd

“Other programmes bring small seedlings. You wait. You water. You hope. Seven years before anything comes. These trees arrived already grown. I will harvest them this season.”

Amjad has spent his life in the kitchen, but his passion was always on the farm. He had a piece of land near Hebron, waiting. to be planted. When we came to him with 25 olive trees, he did not hesitate. He laid the water pipes himself, by hand, before we even arrived to plant. Today those 25 trees stand on land that Amjad built with his own hands and he cannot wait to harvest them.

Al-Majd · Hebron

Izzat

Grandfather · Small land around his home · Al-Majd

“Five trees is not a farm. But it is a garden that will outlive me, and bless my children and grandchildren.”

Izzat did not ask for much. He is a grandfather with a small piece of land around his house. Not a large grove, not a big ambition. Just a few trees to call his own. We brought him five olive trees and planted them around his house on the same day we delivered them. He stood and watched every one go into the ground.

Al-Bira · Hebron

Ibtesam

Mother of five · Al-Bira · Shared land with neighbour

“I did not expect the trees to bring my neighbour closer. But that is what happened. We share the work, we share the harvest, and we share a reason to look after this land together.”

Between Ibtesam's home and her neighbour's, there was a strip of land that nobody had touched in years. Unused. Waiting. We planted nine olive trees and two fig trees on that shared strip of earth. Now Ibtesam and her neighbour tend them together. The harvest will belong to both of them. What was empty ground is now a garden that connects two families.

Al-Majd · Hebron

Yusef & Mohammad

Two brothers · Al-Majd · Family land

“Young seedlings need years of watering, and years of waiting. We do not have that much water. These trees came ready to harvest, without much wait.”

Yusef and Mohammad are brothers from Al-Majd. They always wanted to plant olive trees but the seedlings available to them were young and would have needed years of costly watering and care before producing anything. When we came to them with fifteen trees that were already mature, it made sense straight away. Less water, less work, and a harvest in the same year of planting. The two brothers share a piece of land where they now tend the trees together, along with their children.