Miriam Garfinkle Social Justice Fund announces grants

June 20, 2020

The Miriam Garfinkle Social Justice Fund is pleased to announce its first three grants. The recipients are:
Labour4Palestine
Growing Palestine
Ghassan Kanafani Scholarship

Labour4Palestine is a pan-Canadian network of labour activists who work to deepen solidarity with Palestinian workers and people in their struggle for liberation. The MGSJF supported their work through their recent campaign to provide supply food kits for 1000 poor and struggling families of Palestinian workers in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Those kits will mitigate the dire economic situation of these families, exacerbated in the economic fallout of COVID-19.

Growing Palestine helps growers in Palestine to live sustainably on the land through education and contributing resources as growers provide nutritious fruits, vegetables, and grains grown from seeds native to Palestine. Another key goal is to support more efficient water and electricity systems to improve the running of the farms and ensure their viability for future years. The farms are located in the West Bank.

Ghassan Kanafani Scholarship aims to engage young people of Palestinian-Arab heritage living in Canada and US with their cultural and political narrative by exploring their identity in diaspora and how their existence relates and connects to other marginalized communities in their country and beyond. This scholarship is very important as few scholarships or grants exist for youth of Arab heritage to encourage writing and creativity, commitment to literature and arts, and engagement with the larger community.

The Miriam Garfinkle Social Justice Fund was established to honour Miriam Garfinkle (1954-2018) and her lifetime of work for justice. Its mission is to support projects and initiatives which aim to change the world in large ways and small, with the ultimate goal of building a world based on justice and community where people live in harmony with the planet.

The Miriam Garfinkle Social Justice Fund prioritizes grassroots initiatives, with special emphasis on projects designed to raise awareness and stimulate organizing and action.

For more information, see Miriam Garfinkle Social Justice Fund website.