Destruction and despair. But not hopelessness.

The weekend of 7-8 October was supposed to be filled with hope: our partners of BuildPalestine had planned to host their annual regional summit on impact entrepreneurship, happening in parallel in Ramallah and Washington, D.C., where the team planned to announced their impact fund. 

It would have been a big step towards the expansion of the impact ecosystem in the region, opening job opportunities for local youth, helping scale sustainable businesses and offering perspectives on a better future. 

Instead, destruction and despair. But not hopelessness.  

As we have supported the people at BuildPalestine in becoming a positive changemaker in the region, we have gotten to work with a group of courageous women, whose passion and dedication to helping those around them is nothing short of exemplary. 

These people, and their work for a prosperous and peaceful Middle East, give us hope.

They are not alone in their struggle to drive positive change in war zones: the experience of our partners in Ukraine and Armenia has further emphasised that impact investing has an important role to play in the very darkest times. 

But today our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues in Israel and Palestine, along with the victims, civilians and the displaced on both sides of this conflict. The recent tragic events have only underlined the need to go back to the drawing board and redefine the rules of the game, to build a fair and prosperous society for all. We will do our best to support our members and partners in any humanitarian effort and in any initiative that can help alleviate the suffering that inevitably comes out of a conflict like this.

At this darkest hour, we continue to hold strong on our hopes for a peaceful future for the region.

Roberta Bosurgi

and the EVPA team