First Saturday EVS Volunteers in London

Hi friends! We are Emilio, Nadine, Momen and Dunja the EVS Volunteers from Cadfa.

The last Saturday, we were visiting the city together and spending good time in London city, also we talked about how is possible to survive in a expensive city as London, and talking about the stores and where is possible to buy food, house stuff, clothes, etc. cheaper. We started the visit in King Cross Station, and we walked through Russel Square visiting Bloomsbury and the universities, and at the end we finished our tour in Picadilly Circus. We ate a small lunch on our way and we enjoyed the sunny Saturday doing the typical British walked around the city center.

I hope we will share more days like this because we enjoyed so much.

Hi Momen and Nadine

Hi Cadfa friends!

Sorry, because that I didn't write anything here last week ! But we received really good new people in the office. The new EVS Volunteers from Plaestine are now with us! I want to say 'hello' to Momen and Nadine! We are so happy to be here with you.

The first week with them was really good! Dunja and me taught them eveything about the office, how to  use the blogs, a tour in Camden Town and we went to the schools with them to do our Human Rights Lunch Club. I want to say that Nandine was really good on her first day talking about borders and chekpoints in Palestine. On Friday, we had the training meeting with Nandita and it was really useful for them because it solved so many questions, and I hope step by step they will start to be more familiar with every CADFA tasks.

Now, we start the week and everybody is working together and I hope they will be really good colleagues and they will know how do everything on their own, also if they need something, I will be so happy to help!

Emilio  Sanchez

EVS Volunteer

To go to London to be happy?

One of the CADFA volunteers in Abu Dis wrote this blog, after speaking to some of the young people who applied to join the visit.

http://abudisvolunteers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/everyone-wants-to-go-to-london-to.html

 

The picture above is a demolished house next to the Israeli separation wall in Abu Dis (taken by another CADFA volunteer in Abu Dis)

Visas and inequality

The Palestinian children coming to Britain in June have been chosen and today the visa applications went in. The next stage in a long journey. They will have to go to Ramallah or Jerusalem to do fingerprints. Some of them are not allowed by the Israelis to go to Jerusalem. Others are not allowed by the British Consulate to do their fingerprints in Ramallah because they ARE allowed in Jerusalem.

Why are the British echoing the divisions between Palestinians made by Israel? 

Then the long journey goes on - a month-long process for getting a visa, making the timing tight before their journey on 5th June.  If they were Israelis living on Palestinian land in the West Bank, they wouldn't need a visa at all. They could travel tomorrow...

Why are the British allowing the inequalities made by Israel?

Please consider signing  and sharing our petition (we are also collecting this in hard copy and are sending the numbers in as they get bigger)

http://www.petitions24.com/palestine_and_jerusalem

A VIP treated at the airport

My name is Nadeen, I am from Jerusalem and I am a new EVS  volunteer here in London .

This is my first day working at the office .

Being a Palestinian from Jerusalem means that you have no nationality, you hold an Israeli travel document with Jordanian as a nationality written on it. Despite this, I am not Jordanian, I am not Israeli, this means that you will have a VIP treatment at Ben-Gurion airport .

Three times of checking at least, 3 hours an a half, so many questions and to be surrounded by 5 security men and a physical checking before getting on the plane, one of the most offensive and humiliating checks ever, and for a moment while two Israeli girls were checking me in a private room I wanted to go back to Jerusalem.  I felt like they were trying to humiliate me as much as they can especially with the physical machine,they checked my hair only because I am a Palestinian girl. I had to step into a machine and put my hands in the air, it was as if I was being arrested, despite the fact that I am a trainee lawyer in the Israeli court system. It was one of worst experiences that I had had even though  I had traveled many times before outside my country. When I asked the security man what's wrong and why are you checking me so much, he said "we are treating you  very well, don't worry, we are treating you as a VIP person ".

If I was a Jew they would not even check my suitcase, they would do the usual thing and only they put the suitcase inside the machine and that's it. So there is a huge gap between the written law and the implementation in real life  . 

The first article we learn about Israeli law is that " Israel is a Jewish and democratic state for everyone " . 

but I have had  a totally different experience despite the fact that I am a Jerusalemite .

Nadeen

  

A British Day in Yorkshire.

The first day in the students exchange program was held in an old house in swarthy Farm in Yorkshire under the name of the British Day. 

Our accommodation is located between many hills that is covered by snow as it was neighbored  by small farms. No Cell phones no Internet. everything in this house were doing nothing but to push everybody to know each other more and create kind friendship relations between Palestinians and British Students and non British students in UK. cooking shepherd's pie, playing together with the snow, knowing what is the relation between UK people with the tea and milk, Eating with the British Table manners and exploring the multinational reflections of students about studying in UK. Many presentations were shown to uncover details of different parts about life in UK. some of it were similar to situations in Palestine as the changing accent in different parts of UK. Other presentation were attractive for comparison between the two states as the one about Studying  in UK which focused on the student life in SOAS University, it was a great to have an idea how students go to the university, what facilities are available for students and what kind of activities other than studying they have.

 At the end of this day , I had a conclusion that if Britain was called Great Britain for various reasons, at least, I know one, it is great in education  it is great in combining varieties and multinational cultures and at the end it stay Britain.                

A day in Amnesty

6th Febreuary, a visit to Amnesty International, one of our best days in England. 

It started by a group of 8 members heading shtratford and they  are not familiar with London roads, tubes and directions. Checking the maps and the bus and train routes was something new to most of the group members and included lot of enjoyments. As a human rights researcher, one of the great ambitions to me is to visit Amnesty Internationl, the first human rights NGO. The day started with a Palestinian Researcher works at Amnesty, Saleh Hijazi, Saleh introduced amnesty 's establishment, vision, goals and strategies. Following the introduction, Saleh positioned the group in a close eye on how Amnesty works to document human rights violations. The members of the group and I were amazed with the very professional techniques and developed equipments and the huge attention to all details given from the field.

Moreover, Saleh showed the group how Amnesty uses these documentations through reports, blogs and communications with international organizations and policy makers. 

At the end, the group had a tour in all Amnesty organization, the group was amazed how the building was split into floors as each floor is for particular region like Asia, South America and the MENA region. In addition to the former, the group were surprised from the organization of the offices, how they are small one and doing huge work, PCs, newsletters, posters  are everywhere in the organization. At the end, the group left Amnesty International with warm goodbye and a lot of gifted reports and publications.         

Osama Risheq   

Palestinian children's group chosen!

There have been so many applicants in Palestine for the children's visit to the UK (June 5th to 15th) and so many lovely young people - it has been a hard choice.
 
Pictures below are of some of the children who applied - not all of them - with some of the objects relating to Palestine that they brought to their interviews. This included...

drawings, a poem, Palestinian earth, zaatar, Palestinian embroidery, Palestinian coffee, an olive branch, Nabulsi soap, olive wood carving, a 'permission' to travel, a birth certificate from Israel and a passport from Jordan for a Palestinian, a stone, a kaffiyeh (Palestinian scarf)....

A big thank you to everyone who applied and we wish good luck next time to those who weren't chosen - we wish we could have taken you all.

We have offered places to six boys and six girls. We know there are many obstacles between now and the group getting to Britain but now we start the journey!

Preparing for the Youth Visit

The Twinning in Action  youth exchange to UK will take place between 5th and 15th June. Preparations are under way!

In Palestine, 32 young people have put in applications to take part -  They are currently attending special sessions at Dar Assadaqa and the lucky 15 will be chosen at the end of next week. Their next step will be to begin the long process of  visa applications.

In London, there will be a meeting on 23rd April above the CADFA office in Kentish Town for young people who are interested in coming. This is open to young people from school twinning clubs, Camden youth clubs and other places. Application forms will be available at the meeting on 23rd June.

The exchange has a drama theme. So after that, the young people in both places will have drama workshops so they have something to show each other at the beginning  of the exchange. And during the exchange, they will work on a joint piece of drama which others can see

IN HACKNEY ON FRIDAY 12th JUNE
and
AT THE ETCETERA THEATRE IN CAMDEN on (either Saturday 13th or Sunday 14th June -the date will be decided tomorrow!)

Cricket tournament 12 April 2015

Hi CADFA friends!

The cricket tournament is coming! Do you want to enjoy being part of a team and to try to win some great prizes? Or would you just like to help out as a volunteer at the event? We will have a beautiful day playing cricket, enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and having a fun day with all our CADFA friends!

Please get in contact with us if you are interested! We look forward to seeing you or you and your team on Sunday 12th April 2015!

Pendle paper

This is about part of the CADFA Twinning in Action project!

http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/what-s-on/reviews/palestinian-women-welcomed-to-pendle-by-twinning-group-1-7185016