April 3, 2010  Dr. Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of Palestine, plants another olive tree...

This is a very special Olive Tree as it was planted in an opening ceremony for the very first Arial Home built in Palestine.  The Arial Home is part of Amer Rabayah's dream for sustainable housing in Palestine.

The location of the Arial Home is in Beit-Sahour.

The Arial Home is also part of the plan Muhannad Beidas, Chief, Field Education Programme, West Bank, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, is in the process of implementing.  The plan consists of an Arial Home Factory in Palestine where factory workers would be vocational students learning a trade.  The Arial Homes produced would be used, in part, for refugee camps.  It is an ideal situation as local youths would be trained in a vocation while refugee camps would be easily assembled and disassembled as needed.  Other members of the United Nations have been involved as well.

Amer Rabayah is the Founder and President of Engineers Without Borders - Palestine.  Amer Rabayah learned about the Arial Home Initiative through Bernard Amadei who established Engineers Without Borders in 2000.  Amer Rabayah met Tom and Jane Pirelli at a joint Engineers Without Borders Eastern Mediterranean Conference in April 2009.  Representatives from Palestine, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Jordan, and the United States attended this conference.  The Arial Home Initiative received much interest and recognition as sustainable housing at the conference.

After meetings at the conference and many emails back and forth, the components for an Arial Home were made in the Arial Home Initiative's Riviera Beach, Florida factory and shipped to Amer in Palestine from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

It was not an easy process for Amer as he had numerous obstacles to conquer before the Arial Home could be built.  Believing in his dream, perseverance, and determination paid off as the Arial Home was completed in March 2010.  Amer and his fellow engineers built the Arial Home with only pictures and documentation to go by.  None of them had ever seen a completed Arial Home.

Efforts will continue to build an Arial Home Factory in Palestine that will provide affordable sustainable housing  for those who need it the most.

The Arial Home Initiative is a Project of The Arial Foundation, Jupiter, FL

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