The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) MENA training for renewable agriculture came at just the right time for farmers like Kleema and her family in Homs, Syria. Kleema's agricultural land, which had once grown grapes, apples, and apricots, was barren and devoid of plants due to a lack of water.
Kleena explains that when ADRA MENA announced the training opportunity, she joined the “Mobile Solar Units” initiative and was chosen to manage the solar unit that would help seven farmers irrigate their lands regularly.
“I took on managing the initiative,” Kleema said, “because I am active in agricultural work. We are currently cultivating the land with seasonal crops. My husband and I follow up on it, and we have a water well and a pump on the land. Therefore, we only need energy to extract irrigation water, which we use to water the lands of all participants in the initiative.”
This initiative is part of the Growth and Livelihood Opportunities for Women project (GLOW), which focuses on empowering women and young girls to actively participate in local recovery, decision-making processes, and climate action through agriculture-based training and livelihood inputs in Homs, Syria.
As part of the project’s activities, 14 mobile solar units with accessories support a total of 100 beneficiaries. Each solar unit serves seven farmers, enabling them to operate their water systems for one full day per week.
The GLOW project brings essential change to the farmers’ lives. The initiative enables pumping for existing water wells. These mobile systems convert abundant sunlight into clean, reliable energy to power water pumps, freeing farmers from costly, unreliable dependence on diesel fuel and hard labor.
Kleena looks forward to restoring her family's land. She expressed gratitude to ADRA MENA “for the Mobile Solar Units [that] have helped a large group of people by providing irrigation water for the land, reducing dependence on fuel and its high costs, and offering flexibility in use, as they can be easily moved between fields as needed."
The original article was published on the Middle East and North Africa Union news site.
