The Palm Association

 

The Palm Association was created to help people with the most basic of needs. The cornerstone of the association is our Feed-a-Family Programme. Sponsorship of the Feed-a-Family programme permits us to provide and distribute approximately 155 food parcels to the value of BD20 every month to impoverished Bahraini families. Each family, identified by our trusted community contacts to be facing difficult financial situations, survive on the bare minimum due to unforeseen or unfortunate circumstances such as the death of a spouse, loss of employment, divorce, accident, disability or illness. The provision of food boxes can help to alleviate the burden.

We conduct what we call The Family Audit whereby our clients’ situations are reassessed annually. This is done for two reasons: firstly to provide moral support to our Palm Families, to determine if more help is required; secondly to ensure that sponsorship money is not wasted or abused. By nature, this process is, in itself, cyclical. However, from time to time we do find that some of our clients’ fortunes have taken a turn for the better! With this comes a great sense of satisfaction as the monthly delivery of the food parcel has helped to see them through the worst of times. Our job is done. When this occurs, these clients are removed from the Feed-A-Family programme and though we may be loathe severing some longstanding relationships, other families are promptly added to our list of monthly recipients in their place. We are fortunate enough to be guided by a group of wonderful Bahraini women, who not only act as our translators and cultural interpreters, but most importantly as our advisors. We refer to them as our Dream Team! Without them, our Family Audit would not run as smoothly.

The Palm Association is deeply indebted to The Red Leaf Trading Establishment – Teas Importers and Merchants who donate their expertise, time and labour to tend to the logistics of this programme. Red Leaf Trading Establishment source and purchase our groceries at wholesale prices in the local market. This is followed by sorting and packaging and finally by delivery to each and every family during the first week of every month. This is a phenomenal undertaking which requires huge dedication by members of their staff who really take the time and trouble to ensure that ALL parcels are delivered to ALL our clients in a timely fashion. In addition to this monumental task, Red Leaf Trading employees will sometimes draw our attention to a situation when they notice something amiss and sense that our intervention may be required.

BMMI supply the bags free of charge to parcel up our food items. Each food parcel contains basic non-perishable items including rice, flour, dried milk, and sugar. This is also accompanied by a large package of washing powder. The annual cost of supporting one family is BD240. To date we have distributed over 8,000 boxes to needy families. At present we provide for 155 families monthly. A ‘goody’ box is also provided to the paediatric units at Salmaniya Hospital on a monthly basis. This box contains nutritious treats! The Round Table very generously donated the funds to provide all our families with our food parcels with extra Ramadan treats during the month of August 2012! Thank you, Round Table!

Project Rebuild

Through the Family Audit, The Palm Association found that some families needed more than just food parcels. We learned of older children with disability sleeping on the floors because a bed was just too unsafe. They would just roll out and fall to the floor. We met women who washed clothes for entire households which could encompass their husband, elderly parents, unmarried sisters and several children – all by hand! We have visited homes that did not possess any furniture whatsoever! We have met widows who owned very old air conditioners that were beyond repair and blew out only hot air!! We have encountered families who possessed a solitary gas burner on the ground to cook all meals; hazardous for toddlers and requiring endless bending, squatting and lifting by tired mothers. We could see the food parcels were of huge benefit, but having allowed us into their homes, we knew we had to do more. In the early years, The Palm Association gained a reputation for a once a year appliance drive, but as it began to become better established and funding from the community became more forthcoming, it was decided to purchase essentials as and when they are requested. This has allowed The Palm Association to focus on the specific needs of each and every one of our Palm Families and makes provision for an immediate response to emergency requests from trusted sources such as a recent appeal for a family whose home collapsed and lost all of their possessions.

The Palm Association has distributed over 7,000 appliances to families all over Bahrain throughout the past 13 years. We have established ourselves as a regular customer with local suppliers which enables us to purchase washing machines, gas cookers, water heaters, air conditioning units and refrigerators at a discount and with free installation and delivery. Plus bedding, mattresses, beds, rugs, curtains, wardrobes, majlis cushions, chairs, bedside lockers and much more are purchased and delivered without delay. Wheelchairs and medical beds have been sourced and provided too. From May to December 2012, the Palm Association bought and delivered 33 beds and mattresses; 11 air-conditioners; 7 gas cookers; 1 refrigerator; 5 washing machines and 9 pieces of furniture which included wardrobes, chairs etc.

Over the years, the Palm Association has distributed thousands of blankets and warm jackets to our Palm Families and to others prior to the onset of the cold weather. Through experience we have found that washable fleece blankets are the most suitable for our clientele. We begin our search in November and because we are a known quantity among the merchants, they call us as soon as their delivery arrives on the Island. December 2012 saw the Palm Association distributing 500 blankets to hundreds of needy families.

The Family Audit helped identify other requirements of our Palm Families; some homes were in such poor repair that urgent steps had to be taken.Therefore, it was a natural progression for the Palm Association to assist in the refurbishment and renovation of these families’ most basic facilities such as bathrooms, kitchens, flooring, unsafe staircases, roofs, dangerous electrical wiring etc. Since 2006 the Palm Association has undertaken numerous rebuilding projects to transform these dwellings into safe, comfortable homes. When we embark upon a project we require a copy of the deeds to ensure that our householder is legally entitled to alter the building. We then enter into a Memorandum of Understanding which clearly states what will be accomplished, how long the project will last and what exactly The Palm Association will pay for. We tender the project out to small family builders who oversee the project from beginning to end. In the past, companies such as Batelco have underwritten the project in its entirety.

More recently, a home had been gutted by fire. Sadly the fire was caused by the couple’s own children playing with matches. The Palm Association paid for and supervised all restoration work of the family’s home, bought basic furniture and even a few cuddly toys for the couple’s children. The Palm has recently agreed its most recent project which will begin February 2013.

Education

School Outreach Programme

It is the responsibility of every charity to highlight its ideals and aspirations. To this end the Palm Association has been very active over the years. Our approach is two pronged: school liaison and educational financial assistance for individual students.

Our school-based programme launched in 2001 with the ‘Shoebox Appeal’ for the younger cohort where shoeboxes filled with goodies were collected by pupils from The British School and Nadeen International School to present to Bahraini children from deprived backgrounds.

In 2003, we assisted teenage students from Al Bayan School in their first annual ‘Chicken Run.’ As part of the International Baccalaureate community service requirement, these teenagers raised BD1000, which they used to purchase a truckload of fresh chickens. The students then, over the weekend, delivered every chicken personally to individual families. This fun activity gave the students an appreciation of some families’ poor living conditions, and encouraged continued visits and support. The programme continued until 2005.

Today we have a dedicated school liaison officer who is available to assist all schools in Bahrain in their social outreach programmes. Our school liaison officer is there to work with and support teachers in their efforts, to help students better understand the community in which they live, engender and nurture empathy for those less fortunate and to afford students an opportunity to contribute in a positive way. We appreciate all the support we receive from schools throughout Bahrain and we are grateful for the time teachers take to tell their students about the Palm Association and its work. Furthermore we thank their students for all their youthful enthusiasm and contributions.

Individual Educational Assistance

As the Palm Association evolved, the next important step was to create a balance by adhering to the concept, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

English Language Courses

In the past the British Council and Lingoease have taught English to women with disability at Bahrain Mobility International. Young Bahraini boys and girls have for a number of years also taken part in summer schools provided by Lingoease. During the Summer of 2012 several children took part in the Lingoease Summer English Course. At present, (January 2013), we have two students attending an English language course at Lingoease.

Primary Education

At present we pay for two little children, siblings, to attend a private nursery. Both parents are seriously ill. Whilst the children attend school in the morning, this allows both parents to attend hospital for their respective treatments.

Meducation

The Palm Association Scholarship Programme for the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain

As part of their social responsibility programme, in 2009, Esterad Investment Company BSC, approached the Palm Association with a one off exciting project – to micromanage and offer pastoral support to six scholarship students of Medicine, five mature students of Masters of Nursing and four students of Nursing and Midwifery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in Bahrain – Medical University of Bahrain. This project was envisaged by Esterad Investment Company BSC, to create a lasting gift to the further development of Bahrain. On the one hand by making individual dreams come true by attending an internationally known centre of educational excellence but also bestowing upon the Bahraini people fine doctors and nurses, thus enhancing the health and well-being of the community in general.

In 2009 Esterad pledged the entire funding for this unique but not on-going scholarship programme. All five Masters of Nursing Students graduated in November 2011. Our Nursing and Midwifery students graduated in June 2012 and we are happy to report that all our medical students are enjoying academic success to date. We are very humbled to be entrusted with such a responsibility by Esterad Investment Company BSC and indebted to the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland in Bahrain – Medical University of Bahrain for making our role very easy!

In June 2012, The Palm Association secured enough funding for another Medical Student’s education but only for the first three years. It is our goal this year to raise US$35,000 to safeguard this student’s fourth year of medical Education and to hold the balance of this money in trust for the completion of her education.

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