THROUGH OLIVE ROOTS, WE REMEMBER — THROUGH OLIVE BRANCHES, WE REBUILD — THROUGH OLIVE HEARTS, WE ENDURE.
THROUGH OLIVE ROOTS, WE REMEMBER — THROUGH OLIVE BRANCHES, WE REBUILD — THROUGH OLIVE HEARTS, WE ENDURE.
OUR STORY
“Every olive tree carries a story — this is ours.” 🕊️
This initiative is dedicated to my grandparents — four among thousands who were displaced from their homes, forced to leave everything behind, and seek refuge in Lebanon.
They were part of the 700,000 Palestinians displaced from their homeland — carrying the weight of a lifetime in a single suitcase, and the keys to homes they would never see again. They were told the exile would be temporary — a matter of weeks, perhaps months. But months turned to years, and years became generations.
The olive trees they once tended grew wild without them; the walls that once echoed their laughter fell silent.
With courage greater than their fear, they risked their lives — and their children’s — for the fragile promise of a safer tomorrow beyond their homeland’s borders. They rebuilt from nothing, clinging to memories that could not be erased and teaching their children to carry the stories of a land they could no longer touch.
This initiative is dedicated to every Palestinian who walked that same road — those who endured exile, lost their beloved, those who never returned, and those still fighting to hold onto identity and hope amid loss.
El-Farmawi Olive Relief Fund (EFORF) carries that same spirit forward — not as a story of loss, but as a mission to rebuild what was taken, to plant where they once planted, and to keep alive the dream they never abandoned.
Voices of Remembrance 🌿
Each decade tells a story — not only of loss, but of the unbroken voice of a people who turned memory into resilience. These are the words that carried us from 1948 to today.
1948 – 2025
Write it down! I am an Arab. I have a name without a title. I am patient in a land Where everything lives in anger. My roots Were thrust before the birth of time, Before the beginning of ages, Before the cypress and the olive tree, Before the growth of grass. - Mahmoud Darwish
Advance! You have rifles, and we have our blood. You have bullets, and we have our flesh. Come, test your weapons! We shall see whose heart beats stronger — your metal or our soul. Advance! You may cut down the olive tree, but will you stop the dawn from breaking? You may steal the land, but can you silence the wind, or chain the sea?. - Samih al-Qasim
He was not an icon of war, nor a warrior in the crowd. He was a child — a small child who loved to play, to chase butterflies in the alley, to dream of school, and to sleep beside his mother’s heart. He was a child — and bullets do not know the difference between a child’s chest and the chest of a soldier. - Mahmoud Darwish
In Jerusalem, I walked — and all the time I thought I was outside her walls. But when I reached her gates, I found her walking with me. She said: “Do you think you can describe me? In every stone, there is a prayer, in every prayer, a story — and in every story, a child who never grew old.” Here prophets pass by... and martyrs return, and God speaks in the silence of the minarets. - Tamim Al-Barghouti
On this earth what deserves life: the hesitation of April, the scent of bread at dawn, a woman’s opinion of men, the works of Aeschylus, the beginning of love, grass on a stone, mothers standing on a flute’s edge, and the fear of invaders of memories. On this earth what deserves life: the end of September, a lady leaving forty behind with full blossom, the hour of sunlight in prison, a cloud reflecting a swarm of creatures, and the people’s applause for those who face death with a smile. - Mahmoud Darwish