Volunteers provide valuable help on the Nassar family farm.  In addition to supporting the work carried out on the land, the presence of international volunteers helps protect the farm from outside incursions.  Volunteers provide a cadré of possible eyewitnesses to any effort to demolish animal pens, trees, compost toilets, tents, etc.; volunteers need to be both hard-working and observant.

The Tent of Nations website has a volunteer application form with detailed descriptions of the kinds of work needed to be done on the farm.  All volunteers are expected to help defray the cost of their time on the farm, which sounds like an oxymoron:  Who pays for the privilege of volunteering?  In reality, providing room, board, and infrastructure for volunteers is an expense that farm income is not presently able to cover.  While the Nassars continue working to make the farm self-sufficient, that time has not yet come.

Suggested fees are $150/week for short-term volunteers, and $100/week for long-term volunteers staying a month or more.

The biggest benefits to volunteering on the farm come in small packages:

• planting a tree and nurturing the roots as they take a strong hold in the rocky soil;
• picking grapes and watching them be turned into wine, raisins, jam;
• hauling rocks and turning them into walls of support;
• watching as a child at the Summer Camp smiles as he or she swings high into the freedom of the open air;
• learning about yourself and the wider world around you;
• getting to know others from around the world;
• giving back when you are given so much;
• singing around an open campfire with friends and colleagues after a day of hard work;
• picking olives or almonds or apples or figs, one at a time; and
• sharing a glorious sunset in a part of the world you never expected to visit – the Holy Land.

Thank you for considering becoming part of an ever-growing group of individuals who love justice and work non-violently for peace.