Rabbits on the Roof
4 October 2006
An Oxfam-funded rabbit breeding project in northern Gaza is helping Palestinians in Gaza benefit from increased income and a more varied diet.
Jabalia is a large refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip that was set up in 1948 next to a village of the same name. Today, the camp has engulfed the city, and the two have merged into one entity. This area of around 1.5 sq. km. (1 mi.) is home to more than 130,000 people. There’s only one park in Jabalia, so people use their rooftops as gardens and also as breeding grounds for hens, doves—and now for rabbits, too.
In April, Oxfam began a three-month pilot project in Gaza, working with a non-profit organization called Ma'an which has been working with civil-society groups for the past 17 years. Ma'an’s recent work has focused on building local people’s skills and improving the amount and quality of food available in Gaza.
Animal Husbandry
Animal husbandry can help poor families improve their diets and generate an income, and it can empower women by giving them a breadwinning role. This is particularly important for the Gaza strip, where the food market depends on the Karni crossing point on the border with Israel. The frequent closure of Karni means that there isn’t a large choice of food items available in Gaza, and prices have risen, as well. Although this project was originally conceived as a hen-breeding program, a recent outbreak of avian flu made rabbits a better choice of livestock.
The project involves 45 women from Jabalia city and the refugee camp. The families chosen were female-headed households where the husbands are unable to work or the women are widowed. The families were chosen on the basis of need, and were also selected on the basis of their knowledge and experience with animal husbandry. Since the venture was going to be carried out in a crowded urban area, they also needed to have the right space to accommodate the rabbits—at least a rooftop where the smell would not bother the neighbors, and the animals could be kept clean. Each person was given a cage divided into five compartments with four females and one male rabbit, and then the women were provided with training.
Butheina Dahalan lives in one of the narrow winding streets that compose the Jabalia refugee camp. She has been a widow for a long time and she is the head of her family. Her husband was killed a while ago by a stray bullet during an Israeli incursion. She lives with her two married sons and their families and the rest of her six children.
After walking up three floors of narrow dark cement stairs up to the roof top, Buthaina opened the small door, and the light was blinding. We could see across the whole city. The rabbit hutch was up there in between the clean laundry hung out to dry and the children's toys.
As Buthaina explained, this project is very important to her because it allows her to develop a small venture that brings in a cash income for her and her family. Yes--the rabbits eat a lot and it is not cheap to feed them, but in the long run she knows the investment will pay off.
Three of Buthaina’s rabbits have just given birth to baby rabbits, and we got to see some of the newborns -- around 18 of them! She showed them to us with great pride. The rooftop, although very cluttered, was spotlessly clean, and no smell was coming out of the cages. She has involved the younger children in the upkeep and cleaning of the area, and she says it works well.
Advance Orders
It’s early days, but in a few months Buthaina will be able to sell the rabbits locally and keep some for her family to eat. Buthaina expects to develop a steady clientele. She told us that people who have lived in Egypt are very keen on eating rabbit with molokhiyia (a green leaf eaten like spinach in a soup). Buthaina will prepare the rabbits herself and then she will sell them to neighbors and people from Jabalia. She has already received several orders in advance.
Because of the large demand from the community, a new longer-term project is being set up, funded by Oxfam and carried out by partner organization Ma'an, starting in August. It will take place in four different areas but in a more rural setting this time. One hundred sixty families will be involved in it. One of the identified communities includes many residents who have come from Egypt; they are accustomed to rabbit meat as a central part of their diet, and they have experience raising rabbits, as well.
The use of rooftops for animal husbandry is a tradition in many places in the Middle East. Doves and chickens are the usual animals involved, but the Oxfam pilot project suggests that rabbits, too, will prove to be a valuable source of nutrition and income in crowded and impoverished communities.
25 August 2006
