Thrive International Programs

We are privileged to have Aseel, leading the recipes for the take meal this Wednesday! For more information about the meal visit https://thriveip.org/comfortfood/ The following are some words from Aseel about the meal and what it means to her: Sahha is a term used by Palestinians when food is served. It wishes people health and prosperity as they eat a meal. Sahha to you for having this meal. ... Sharing this dish with you means a lot to me. As a Palestinian who grew up under the Israeli occupation, my life has been different from most people around the world. Some basic rights like the right to housing or freedom of movement have been taken away from me and my Palestinian people. To help share what it is to live under occupation: a trip that should take thirty minutes at maximum might take up to three hours because of the checkpoints and roadblocks. This might be dangerous if this trip is to a hospital or a clinic. From experience, my Palestinian people also live in daily fear of the excessive use of force, arbitrary arrest, unfair trial, home demolitions, the apartheid wall, and Israel’s disregard for the international law. Despite all of this that I have grown up witnessing, though, I come from a rich culture that I am proud of, and I am excited to share with you. Since Palestinians have been living through enormous upheaval over the last decades, the Palestinian culture has become important for holding the community together. Representing the culture has become a part of resisting occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. In this month’s meal, I present to you two dishes from the land of Jesus’s birth: Malfouf and Salata. Malfouf is a traditional dish made of stuffed cabbage with rice, ground beef, and spices. Salata is the Arabic name of salad. It is made of chopped tomatoes, cucumber, sweet pepper, parsley, radish, lemon, salt, sumac, and most importantly, olive oil. The colours of this dish (green, white, black, and red) represent the colours of the Palestinian flag. During the 1980s, the Palestinian flag was forbidden by the Israeli forces and artists were forbidden from using its four colours as well. Therefore, dishes and fruits that included these four colours became symbol of resistance for Palestinians. With this being said, I’m not only sharing with you a culinary dish, but I am sharing you my culture and my country’s history in hopes of spreading awareness about my country and the situation there. I hope you enjoy this dish. Be healthy and prosperous while having this meal. I wish you Sahha!

We are looking forward to Palestinian food on Wednesday June 16th. If you are interested in ordering food, use the following link to pre-order https://thriveip.org/comfortfood/

Do you have immigration questions and live in the Williamsport area? Today (Monday, June 14) between 7:00-8:00pm, visit us to have a free short conversation with our DOJ accredited representative and staff members. The event will be at City Alliance Church at 420 Elmira Street in Williamsport. The goal of the conversations is to help answer general immigration questions and help community members decide about next steps like a full consultation with Thrive, a referral to another resource, or a decision to wait. For more information, contact us at 570-478-0081 or visit us this evening.

We are excited for our takeout meal next Wednesday, June 16th featuring recipes from Palestine including Malfoof, Arabic salad, and pitas! Our thanks to Aseel for sharing her time, talents and friendship with us to lead the meal. To order, visit https://thriveip.org/comfortfood/.