Translated by Sabrin Qadah 

Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction "PECDAR" signed today at its headquarters in Ramallah, a 300 thousand dollars agreement with the Palestinian Ro’ya institution, divided into three stages to implement a project for houses’ restoration and maintenance in the village of Nabi Samuel northwest of Jerusalem, with funding from the IDB development in Jeddah.

The agreement is considered one of other 15 separate agreements for projects and programs targeting Jerusalem with funding from the Islamic Development Bank, a total value of $ 6 million, to support a variety of sectors including education, restoration of buildings, and empowerment of women, youth and sports, as well as cultural and social sector.

Engineer Ra’ed Anabtawi, Project Manager in "PECDAR", said that the importance of the project lies in facing the challenges and constraints imposed by the occupation on the citizens in this village, as they are denied the entry of building materials for the construction of new homes or restoration of the old ones, noting that most of the homes in the village are in a poor condition.

Anabtawi noted that the project will come into implementation immediately after the signing, and will be divided into three stages to cover most of the houses of the village, which are nearly forty houses.

For his part, CEO of the Palestinian Ro’ya foundation Rami Nasser al-Din said that the first stage will last four months and is worth 100 thousand dollars.

He explained that his organization, which is the body responsible for implementation and pursuance of the project, has studied joint technical flaws in the village houses. Based on that, the project gave priority for roofs, walls and floors maintenance, in addition to the painting, installation of windows and doors and rehabilitation of electricity, sewage and water networks.

Al-Nabi Samuel village suffers from land confiscation by the occupation. About 467 acres of land have been confiscated for settlement blocs and detours. The separation and annexation wall divided the village's 260 inhabitants from all the Palestinian neighboring villages. The occupation authorities practice strict actions on them in various daily aspects of life.

The Palestinian Ro’ya Foundation is a non-profit association of youth founded in 1998 by a group of entrepreneurs.  It seeks to empower Palestinian youth, deepen the national consciousness, increase leadership opportunities, and promote genuine partnership with the national networks.