"We're swimming
in the local cacao-growing community. The
profit from the product provides 185,000
lunches to kids who would otherwise go
hungry. "We're expected to get a new shipment of Tableya soon that will allow us to
move to phase two of that program, which
is supporting locally sourced foods and local
economies," Askinosie adds.
Askinosie says the leadership award
reminds the team that they are on the right
track. "When a lot of things go wrong and
equipment breaks or the countervailing
pressures are strong, things like this fill our
sails and remind us of why we're doing what
we're doing."
2013 LEADERSHIP AWARD: CITIZENSHIP
Nasser Abufarha, Founder and
Director, Canaan Fair Trade LLC
PHOTO: CANAAN FAIR TRADE LLC
against
the current of traditional
business practices that thinks
philanthropy must be separate
from the core business.
T
his company challenges the social, political and economic isolation Palestinians
face by creating an organization that empowers citizens and helps them thrive and connect with the outside world and in all facets
of their lives.
Inspiration
When Nasser Abufarha, a native Palestinian who had been in the U.S. attending college,
returned home to finish his doctoral research in cultural anthropology in 2003, he became
preoccupied with the plight of Palestinian olive oil farmers. Oil prices had plummeted below
costs and livelihoods were being hurt from lack of market opportunities. He founded the
Palestine Fair Trade Association in 2004, working to empower small farmers through education and training. He also launched Canaan Fair Trade, a producing and exporting company
that gives the farmers a direct link to the international market.
Abufarha developed the first internationally recognized standard for fair trade olive oil
in the region with the belief that it would empower marginalized Palestinian rural commu-
MARCH 2013
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