海角大神

Islam Abu Saud checks the series of white plastic tubes running and twisting across the expanse of green canvas in what looks like a life-sized school science project.

She scans digital pH readers and engine pumps. Finally, the 22-year-old university graduate gazes with satisfaction at the end result of the past four weeks of labor: bright green heads of lettuce.

Even better? This is not a farm or research center 鈥� this is her rooftop.

鈥淎fter waiting for opportunities to arrive,鈥� Ms. Abu Saud says, 鈥淚 am making opportunities grow at home.鈥�

In Jordan鈥檚 Jerash refugee camp, an experiment in hydroponic rooftop gardening is offering more than a badly needed source of income. It鈥檚 offering a reconnection to the land for a people who have been uprooted for half a century.

In Jordan, a country whose population has one of the highest percentages of refugees in the world, residents in the 鈥淕aza Camp鈥� 鈥撎鼼azans who arrived here at the Jerash camp in 1968 and their descendants 鈥�听have it perhaps the hardest.

As the Gaza Strip was not under Jordanian administration at the time of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Jordan did not grant citizenship to Gaza refugees like it did for Palestinians arriving from the West Bank.

This has left few options for the 31,000 residents in Jerash camp, a hill of cinder block houses and narrow broken roads 30 miles northwest of Amman.

Without national IDs, the vast majority of job sectors are closed to Gazans. Unemployment in the camp stood at 40%, and 52% of residents were below the poverty line before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many secured income as day laborers on farms and construction sites or as street vendors, all sectors that have been decimated by the pandemic and government lockdowns.

Rooftops as 鈥渦ntapped resource鈥�

But Mohammed Siyam, a camp resident and community organizer, was determined to break the cycle.

He was alerted by another camp resident, an agricultural engineer, that hydroponic farming 鈥� growing crops in water containers without the need for land, large amounts of soil, or constant irrigation 鈥� could offer a solution.

鈥淭he only breathing space people have here is their rooftops,鈥� Mr. Siyam says, gesturing to a seemingly endless wave of concrete rooftops behind him. 鈥淚t was an untapped resource we could maximize.鈥�

The average home in the 鈥淕aza Camp鈥� has some 535 to 800 square feet of rooftop area to use as garden space, enough room for a hydroponic system that can raise from 800 to 1,200 shoots of crops.

Alerted to the idea, UNICEF supported Mr. Siyam by launching a pilot project this past February.

Mr. Siyam and his team planned gardens that would impose the lowest possible costs on residents.

The farms are built to grow multiple cycles of crops with the same water, which is cycled through a closed system of pipes. A timed system pumps water at intervals, keeping electricity bills to the bare minimum.听

Today, 24 families are harvesting crops of lettuce, basil, cucumber, and zucchini.

Families also sell to local markets, seizing on vegetable shortages caused by government-imposed COVID-19 lockdowns.

鈥淭his innovative technology provides youth and women in the camp with long-term income generation and increases the community鈥檚 food-security,鈥� says Tanya Chapuisat, UNICEF representative in Jordan.

With the average harvest of a 40-day cycle yielding some 240 JOD ($340) in profit, slightly more than the minimum wage in Jordan, the gardens have been life-changing for many.

鈥淲ith unemployment, we have poverty and negative social phenomena such as early marriage and school dropouts,鈥� says Ms. Abu Saud, who tends her rooftop farm with her twin sister.

鈥淲ith people growing produce in their own home and selling directly, they have a steady stream of income they never had before. We can stop these negative practices and improve the well-being of the entire camp.鈥�

A history of farming

For some, the gardens are also fulfilling something unquantifiable: a longing for land.

The concrete camp is located in the heart of water-starved Jordan鈥檚 greenest area. From any rooftop, rolling hills covered with vineyards and olive, fig, and pomegranate orchards 鈥� where many camp residents work as farmhands during harvest season 鈥� can be seen in the near distance.

This sense of longing is increased by the fact that before being driven into Jordan by war, and their camp growing into an urban maze, many Gaza families were small-farm owners or sharecroppers, attached and attuned to the natural cycle of land and seasons.

鈥淚n the early years of the camp, houses were spread apart, there was room to grow small gardens of tomatoes and cucumbers, and those on the outskirts of the camp had small farms. I grew up with greenery around us,鈥� says Khaled Abu Saud, Islam鈥檚 48-year-old father. 鈥淭he camp grew, and it was all covered by concrete.鈥�

Abdulhakim al-Ayan, who was among the first to be born in the camp in 1968 and whose daughter and son now grow basil and lettuce from their rooftop, recounts how his parents cultivated wheat, figs, and apples on farms in the West Bank and Gaza before arriving in Jordan.

鈥淭ending to the land is in our blood, is part of our collective culture,鈥� Mr. Ayan says.

The gardens have also added a sense of purpose, and even vindication, for young Gazans who have been turned away by employers, such as Ahmed Abu Elewah, the experimental project鈥檚 technical director, who developed the hydroponic system.

As a youth, Mr. Abu Elewah, who was born and raised in the Jerash camp, worked on farms in northern Jordan. Frustrated at being denied a fair wage and the opportunity to advance despite his growing expertise, Mr. Abu Elewah vowed to become more successful than the farm owners who overlooked him.

Creativity and self-reliance

He won a university scholarship to study as an agricultural engineer, yet like most Gazans in Jordan, and despite sterling qualifications, he was unable to land a job in his field.

鈥淲e have so much expertise and talents to give, but we are denied the opportunity to give them,鈥� he says as he proudly demonstrates the timed water-pumping cycle. 鈥淕rowing crops allows an outlet for our creativity and self-reliance.鈥�

Mr. Siyam agrees. 鈥淧erhaps the more important impact is psychological,鈥� he says. 鈥淐amp residents are going from relying on others to becoming self-reliant. After years of feeling helpless or depressed, this is a very empowering notion.鈥�

With a grant from the Netherlands government, UNICEF will expand the project to 140 hydroponic farms benefitting 280 families. Future developments are planned that would allow families to grow out-of-season crops such as strawberries and tomatoes to yield larger profit margins.

Residents say they are already harvesting benefits.

鈥淓ven though we are born in Jordan, we are treated as if we are temporary, that we don鈥檛 belong to the land we grew up on,鈥� says Mr. Abu Saud.

鈥淲hen my daughters grow crops, they are putting down roots here.鈥�