Al Nahda created Salwa as a modest bread pantry to distribute pita to the community during the COVID pandemic. Since 2020 Salwa has grown into a successful free food service to those in need in Worth, Oak Lawn and adjacent neighborhoods. Salwa provides those facing food insecurity in our community with free healthy and balanced food packages bi-monthly. Many other food pantries provide services once a month or less, at Salwa we are dedicated to ensuring consistent healthy food for our families who need it!
Additionally Salwa creates community and strengthen’s our relations with all of our brothers and sisters accross the community by inviting participants to be involved in giving their time for our many other programs and serivces. Salwa works in tandem with our free clinic to provide comprehensive health services to our community at large! join us for our next community on the first saturday of March as a volunteer! You can register for the program at the al Nahda Center on distribution days!
We are happy to announce the launch of Jisoor, our sister organization which will be leading our work in Political Education and Lobbying in the community.
Salaam from Jisoor!
Jisoor is an Al Nahda Affiliated Organization which aims to educate and build bridges in the Palestinian community in Chicago and in Palestine. We work through policy, partnerships, art and literature to foster a more unified Palestinian movement in the diaspora and Palestine. We have created four facets of Jisoor to best bring our community together:
Bridge Events:
Our Bridge Event from November 2022 on the City of Nablus.
Bridge events are small educational events where students and young activists’ present their research on Palestine studies in a short presentation followed by a longer discussion by the community. Please fill out our interest form to become a student speaker for one of our upcoming bridge events to present on your own research. If you are looking to intern with the Jisoor research team or would like to submit some of your work to be featured in our events or magazine please contact us via this link!
Al Qalam is our literary magazine launching in 2023. The magazine serves to unite scholars, activists and artists in Palestine with the diaspora published with pieces in Arabic and English. If you are interested in becoming a contributor to the Al Qalam magazine please reach out to our research team on our website! or follow this link toGet Involved!
Our digital library catalogs the work of activists and provides a living library for Palestinians to share and draw from stories of shared struggle and success. Jisoor is dedicated to freedom of information which is why our library and magazine are free to the public.
Jisoor is launching our policy campaign in the new year in partnership with the Good Sheppard Collectiveon their ongoing Defund Racism Campaign. We are working locally to stop local charities, organizations, companies and individuals from making charitable donations to settler organizations in Palestine. By working locally we are able to garner greater support and awareness in our communities, advocate Palestinian issues with local and state legislatures and strengthen the coalition working globally to stop organizations from funding settlements in Palestine. We working with organizations in Palestine to bring the biggest policy concerns in Palestine to the diaspora and educate the diaspora on how to get involved. Please join one of our upcoming lobbying workshops and stay up do date on everything Jisoor onour website.
We are currently running an extensive Pita Bread Drive in areas where food and bread are scarce due to the outbreak of COVID-19. As part of this project, we provide and distribute bread and packages of food to those in need. To ensure safety, we hand packages of food to individuals through their car trunks to adhere to social distancing practices. The Salwa Project provides packages of food to 200 families weekly, including Muslims and non-Muslims, who live in the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago and other parts of Chicago.
