Taawon

Director General: Aida Essaid
Established: 1983
Type: Non-profit civil society organization
Focus Region: Palestine, refugee camps in Lebanon
Sectors: Education, Culture, Community Development, Emergency, and Humanitarian Assistance

OVERVIEW

Taawon is a non-profit civil society organization registered in Switzerland. Since its founding in 1983, Taawon has supported vulnerable Palestinians to live in dignity. Taawon works in partnership with local communities to relieve hardship and meet basic needs. We create better opportunities by supporting sustainable development initiatives.

Our work touches the lives of around 1 million Palestinians every year in urban and rural areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the refugee camps in Lebanon, and marginalized Palestinians in the 1948 areas. We work with all segments of Palestinian society, especially with children, youth, women, people with special needs, and the underprivileged.

Taawon is committed to advancing creativity, gender equity, a green and sustainable environment, and high standards of governance. All of these factors are crosscutting themes within our impact areas in education, culture, community development, and emergency and humanitarian assistance.

 MISSION

As a leading non-governmental Palestinian development organization, Taawon strives to make a distinguished contribution toward furthering the progress of the Palestinians, preserving their heritage and identity, supporting their living culture, and building civil society. It aims to achieve these goals by methodically identifying the Palestinian people’s needs and priorities and establishing the soundest mechanisms to maximize the benefits from the available funding resources.

VISION

Taawon envisions the Palestinian people as citizens of an independent, free, and democratic Arab Palestine living in dignity, prosperity, and self-fulfillment, with equitable access to opportunities to realize their full potential with distinction and creativity.

OBJECTIVES

• Encourage the preservation of Palestinian culture and identity and the revival of Palestinian cultural heritage.
• Develop, upgrade, and empower Palestinian individuals to become productive professionals, capable of achieving their goals and aspirations and contributing to economic and social change.
• Empower local institutions and assist them in providing services that respond to the needs of Palestinians by implying the requirements of good governance and achieving sustainability.
• Provide rapid and effective response to emergency situations that may put the life, security, or health of Palestinians at risk.

TAAWON IMPACT AREAS 

• Education: Since its inception, Taawon has achieved remarkable progress in supporting efforts to enhance quality education from pre-school to post-graduate studies, particularly for those traditionally pushed to the margins of society: the disabled, the orphaned, and women. Since 1983, Taawon’s contribution to the education sector has reached over $165 million. 

• Culture: Culture is a very important means by which Palestinians have held on to their identity, values, norms, and traditions, not only in Palestine, but also in the diaspora. Taawon has long recognized the importance of culture as an important factor in preserving Palestinian identity and also for the development of Palestinian society as a whole. Since 1983, Taawon’s contribution to the culture sector has reached over $99 million. 

• Community Development: Taawon has been working to give communities sustainable solutions to overcome poverty using an inclusive, rights-based approach to development with contributions of around $170 million. 

• Emergency and humanitarian assistance: Ensuring the survival, protection, and dignity of those living in emergency conditions through rapid and effective response is a priority for Taawon. Our contribution to this sector has reached over $116 million.