GREAT NEWS FOR CADFA THIS YEAR! Our 10th October birthday
celebration will become a big celebration of another CADFA first!
The whole Twinning in Action programme of twinning exchange visits to Palestine has been
agreed by Erasmus + (EU funding).
This
is at a time when things are very grim in Palestine and around Jerusalem* - Abu
Dis itself is surrounded by extra ‘flying checkpoints’ – news of imprisoned
children, shootings and deaths over the past few days. So we will be keeping an
eye on the situation before we run the visits of course.
CADFA has heard today that we
will be given grant funding this year to run the following exchanges to
Palestine: youth leaders’ exchange, a student exchange, a young women’s
exchange and a youth exchange! This is in addition to the teachers’ visit to
the UK that will take place in January!
Already the CADFA links groups
in Camden (women, students, young people) are working hard to build and sustain
links between the two countries in order to raise awareness of the lives of
Palestinians under Israeli occupation and to encourage people to be active in
promoting human rights.
CADFA’s first eleven or so
years has been full of firsts – We have built many links, opened many bridges
and made difficult projects possible. We have helped dozens of groups to find
‘twins’ in Palestine, taken hundreds of people in each direction to see each
other’s lives and helped build friendships of many kinds between the two
countries.
CADFA’s long history of
exchanges between Britain and Palestine includes exchanges to Palestine such as
‘Stories from our Mothers’ (women) and ‘Palestine in a Week’ (students) as well
as three teachers’ exchanges funded by the British Council. Coming to the UK,
CADFA has brought four or five exchanges a year in the past few years.
It has taken a year for
Erasmus + to be able to agree to these new exchanges – which really are a first
- and CADFA are delighted to have this next step in our Twinning in
Action project confirmed. Being able to continue with the project will mean
that we can involve hundreds more people during the next year in creative
projects and activities to promote human rights.
As an organisation concerned
with human rights in Palestine, CADFA is aware that the situation is grim at
the moment in Palestine. Palestinians are suffering under military occupation –
we are hearing that the Israelis are surrounding the Al Aqsa Mosque with
military vehicles today. We will need to take a view on the safety
of each visit that we organise, but we hope to run these exchanges and return
each time with a group of visitors who have learned a lot about the reality of
the human rights situation there.
Friends of CADFA are
invited to our BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION on 10th OCTOBER 2015 at St Clement’s
Eastcheap where there will be Arabic music and delicious Palestinian
food. Tickets available here and more
information on this exciting development will be given then.
