Palestine Rocks!

Post rap class in Balata refugee camp school

Entrance to Project Hope office

So there it goes: I've been living intensely, traveling, connecting with people and so on - and all my vows to write consistently are flying out of the window. There's a backlog of funny - and dramatic - stories writhing within my poor brain, and I'll need to get them out, or else some serious mental constipation - or implosion will follow.

Yesterday Bertrand (a fellow-travel junkie, whom I picked up on the streets of Old Jerusalem and to whom I bid a sad farewell last night) and I dared to cross the Wall for the second time; we visited a NGO - Project Hope in Nablus. We were honoured to meet and talk to the director of the project - Hakim Sabbah - as well as several employees and volunteers. I'm especially grateful to Sandy Marshall (former volunteer and current employee and PhD student, who's made Palestine his home), who dedicated a big chunk of his time to tell us about the situation in Palestine and answer the incessant flow of our questions. That was so helpful! We got to accompany Lynne - one of the volunteers to Balata refugee camp, to watch her run a rap class for a group of 11-12 y.o. boys. I returned very charged by inspiration and just as slightly overwhelmed by all the new information, which I'm still digesting like a boa snake its huge pray, so bear with me, and have a read below (quoted from Project Hope's website):

"Project Hope is a non-profit volunteer organization. We support children denied access to basic services that every child needs in order to develop into healthy and well-balanced individual. We provide educational and recreational activities, medical and humanitarian relief and practical training that can empower them with hope and skills for the future. We are currently working in Palestine, a nation where the majority of the population is age 18 or under and living under harsh conditions, making our work all the more important.

Objective - Children and Youth

The objects of the organization are to provide support and humanitarian aid for children and youth around the world living in areas of war, conflict, enlever and underdevelopment through the application of education, training, recreation and health-care activities.

Through alternatives to violence we are improving both the physical and mental health of our participants. We provide a venue for them to express themselves positively, release frustration, develop skills, engage in dialogue and build hope for the future. Our regular programs include language classes, drama and art. Our educational and recreational activities are provided in partnership with existing groups in the local community. In the spirit of cooperation and to save costs, we provide many different programs in partnership with different Palestinian organizations within the community.

We do our utmost to keep costs low and work efficiently. We do not want to waste money in an environment where money should not be wasted. This is one reason why we prefer to use other organization's premises and/or cooperate to create on programs, pooling our resources together. If a building already exists and can be used to organize an activity, and a basic infrastructure exists there, we prefer to supply the programs and human resources. We believe that working together is always a more effective model to effecting real change.

In Project Hope local Palestinians and Internationals work together. Local Palestinians and Internationals have the opportunity to participate in our programs, partake in the administration of the organization and be a leader of a program. We believe in Bottom-Up, not Top-Down development. This means international volunteers act largely as assistants while we aim for leadership at the community level. In this way we can better understand what the local problems are and make use of local innovations to solve them, while providing advice and know-how from outside.

Project Hope is a grassroots initiative helping ordinary people to make a difference. In our work, we value everyone, whatever their creed, religion, sex, color or class background. We feel everyone can make a positive contribution to the lives of Palestinian youth, and want to give everyone we can such an opportunity. We are doing our best to help what is becoming a lost generation and hold on to hope for a healthy, vibrant Palestinian society."

Or go to their website

I've been greeted warmly by Palestine. There were no suicide bombers in sight, but many friendly people eager for me to hear their stories were. Apparently one listens to many stories when living here. Some even make the hairs stand out. I want to hear them all. And share them. So I have to go back, I suppose. Any takers? ;-)