The Earth’s Promise NPO was established in 2007 and set as its goal the promotion of community farming, environmental education and the enhancement of communities. “The Be’eri Farm”, the organization’s main project, is a community agricultural garden found in the Old City neighborhood of Be’er Sheva. The farm was created four years ago as an endeavor to strengthen awareness of the ties between man and his* surroundings through education and hands-on experience of a self-sustaining lifestyle.
Today, the farm acts as an open-air educational community center connecting the city’s residents with the land and the individual with the community. This is done in accordance with the belief that farming the land and being out in the open facilitates ties between people, erases the distance between them and strengthens the solidarity and resilience of the community. A diverse group of residents volunteer at the farm; young families, recent and veteran immigrants, pensioners, students, residents with special needs and others.
In accordance with our aspiration for the farm to be ecologically independent, organic waste is treated at the site, we have implemented a number of systems of ecological building, recycling and organic farming. At the farm, we facilitate the exposure to and hands-on experience of putting ecological practice into place. The farm is a place where the residents learn, grow and develop and become a small seed of change in their immediate environment.
Nature is an integral part of human life. In our time, we’ve distanced ourselves from nature and we’ve forgotten how important it is to our health and our very existence. We are interested in nurturing this connection and in making it accessible to adults and children alike. Countless times, those entering the farm remark on how they immediately feel themselves breathing more fully and comment on the sense of joy they experience from the very basic connection between man, nature, and self.
We believe in the healing value of working the land and therefore strive to spread that message via additional projects both within and outside of the city. We lead after-school programs in farming at a number of Boarding Schools for at-risk children and youth in accordance with our belief that in working the land we acquire significant tools for life such as patience, putting a sustained effort into a goal, a feeling of accomplishment and capability, as well as tools to deal with failure and step-backs. Together with these kids and teens,we built four ecological food gardens where they eat and daily enjoy the fruits of their labor.
We established a therapeutic garden on a porch of the rehabilitation center at Soroka Hospital in Beer-Sheva. Through working in the garden, the patients in the department benefit both physically and mentally. After their release from the rehab center, they are invited to continue this experience and connection by becoming a part of the Be’eri Farm.
Together with the Harel Bnei-Akiva Yeshiva High School in the city of Holon, we initiated the “Sky and Earth” Project. “Sky and Earth” is an ecological garden on school grounds, developed in accordance with the practice of shmitah (7th year fallow defined by Jewish Law) and gives the students the opportunity to learn about ecology and environment as an integral part of their studies. This project deals with both the agricultural aspects of the Shmita year and its educational and ethical side.
Why now?
We recently were offered the rare opportunity of “matching” from the government which means that any donation that we receive will be doubled! After a particularly different year of Covid, every shekel is important in order to expand our current programs as well as allow us to reach other communities, to establish other farms and to connect hundreds more to the earth and to each other.
The donated funds will be invested in the community and the land via programs at the Boarding Schools, agricultural equipment for the farm, in the development of additional green areas within the city, in the development of educational tools and knowledge that will be accessible to all.
We believe that the power behind the farm comes from everyone directly involved in its development and should remain that way. Therefore, it is the dedicated Be’eri Farm community volunteers, who lead the various activities throughout the year,who will vote democratically to decide how to spend 20% of the donations received. In this way, we will be able to be attentive to the needs of the hour and to the needs which arise from the field.