(April 1, 2022) The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) is deeply honoured and most grateful after winning the 2022 Ockenden Prize. We thank Ockenden International for this wonderful award and extend our congratulations to the three other NGOs awarded: the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance (USA), the Irida Women’s Center (Greece) and the Justice Centre Hong Kong (China).
Since its inception in 1951, Ockenden International has helped refugees and displaced people across the globe. Its annual prize, awarded since 2013, rewards innovative work that promotes self-reliance among refugees, forced migrants and displaced people, “by replacing their need for and dependence on aid with constructive projects the beneficiaries often manage themselves”, as Ockenden International explains on its website.
The four winning NGOs were selected among 152 submissions from 48 countries, based on “highly effective projects that have led to real change in people’s lives, with measurable evidence of outcomes”. Each of them receives GBP25,000 to extend their winning projects and best practices.
UAWC was awarded for our innovative gardening project “Promoting food Sovereignty for Palestinian Refugees Living in Camps through Rooftop Gardening” in the city of Hebron. The jury acknowledged our project as the only one “focused on ecology and emphasising sustainability instead of financial imperative”, concluding it had proven itself as an “effective small scale agricultural project in spite of the prevailing political environment”.
We are delighted and proud to receive this prestigious prize, which testifies to UAWC’s role in Palestine as a leading agricultural and developmental organisation.
The 2022 Ockenden Prize inspires us to overcome the multiple threats and challenges UAWC has been facing in the last years and energizes us to keep serving thousands of farmers across Palestine, defending their right to work and live in dignity, safety and freedom.
