Part 1 of Samiha's vlog

From the youth visit... Waiting impatiently for part 2!!
https://youtu.be/dgAD2Wb2-CQ

Youthpass certificates

Hundreds of people have been involved in this project and many of them have had their Youthpass certificates at the end of the exchanges they were part of... But if they haven't,  we'd like to give people the chance to collect them on 19th November  at this event...

Let us know if you were part of Twinning in Action and haven't had your Youth pass certificate yet!!

And note the same thing too in Palestine on 3rd December.

Article about CADFA - by a journalist we met during the youth exchange to Palestine

http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/camden-abu-dis-twinning-action-1252510874

London to Ramallah: Brexit puts Palestine exchange group's future in doubt

Will Brexit stop a London charity’s project that aims to raise awareness of Palestinian human rights?

Ben Clarke

Tuesday 4 October 2016 10:08 UTC

Last update: 

Tuesday 4 October 2016 13:42 UTC s

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank - For newcomers to the Palestinian West Bank there is often a pervasive sense of compunction, a self-admonishing feeling of regret, of having been gulled by the false perceptions of what awaited them.

This was certainly true for Abdel Rebika, a second-year student at the University of Westminster in London, who is visiting for the first time. “Before I came I thought it would be sort of like Gaza,” he says. “I had the impression that everything would be run down. You search for ‘Palestine’ on Google Images and you’re bombarded with pictures of destruction and protests,” he says.

'You never hear about the checkpoints and the different zones, the different ID cards. I didn’t know about that until I came here'

After spending a week in Palestine on a twinning project with the English charity CADFA (Camden-Abu Dis Friendship Association), the trepidation Rebika wrestled with has been exorcised. “It’s probably the most beautiful country I’ve ever been to in my life,” he says, a broad smile breaking across his face. “I was not expecting it to be like this.”

But despite the majestic beauty of the land and the unconstrained kindness of the people that has so enthralled Rebika, he has been appalled and surprised by the realities of life under Israeli occupation. “You never hear about the checkpoints and the different zones, the different ID cards. I didn’t know about that until I came here,” he says with tangible frustration.

“I was in absolute shock when I heard that families were split up because half of the kids would have a green card and half of them would have a blue card, so they can’t even visit each other. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Palestinians with green ID cards can only access towns and villages that are on the “wrong side” of Israel’s Separation Wall, that is in the Palestinian territories. As the wall has been built directly through the middle of some towns, those people that hold green IDs are unable to visit their neighbours and families who carry blue IDs on the other side of the wall.

How exchange trips began - and why they matter

CADFA has been organising exchange trips for the last 10 years, exposing groups of young people from England to the day-to-day realities of life for Palestinians living in the West Bank, as well as affording Palestinians the chance to visit England.

The project started in 2003, just as the wall was being constructed through the heart of Abu Dis, separating families and whimsically providing half the community with enhanced, albeit inadequate, civil rights. A group from the north London borough of Camden were visiting the West Bank during this time and were so affected by the things they saw that they resolved to forge a permanent partnership of solidarity.

'We’re not very big but we’re incredibly determined'

By 2006 CADFA had become a registered charity. “We’re not very big but we’re incredibly determined,” asserts Nandita Dowson, the director who is based in London. She explains that the organisation’s guiding principles have been to promote human rights and respect for humanitarian law, and to give oppressed Palestinian voices a platform in the UK with which to engage policymakers and the population at large.

The most fruitful way they have found to do this, she says, is by creating links between different peoples – by twinning young people, teachers, community leaders and women’s groups.

With a palpable sense of exhaustion, she confesses that this is the fourth CADFA visit to Palestine that she has organised since January. “I’ve got the short straw this year,” she laughs.

'I think people really need to be exposed to the Palestinian people, to the Palestinian culture and to the Palestinian cause'

“What about me?” intercedes Abdulwahab Sabbah, known as Abed, her Palestinian counterpart from Abu Dis, before he reels off the bloated list of commitments that are consuming his energy. Together they have been running the charity, with the help of a small group of committed volunteers, for more than 10 years.

They say the twinning projects are all about sustainability, about continuing engagement. “There weren't supposed to be so many visits but we discovered that once they go they become very active,” explains Dowson.

Dowson's strategy appears to be working, as the group of young people on this latest visit congregate outside the Al-Quds TV station in Ramallah and discuss the media project to which they have been contributing during the past week.

It’s all about raising awareness, voices Rebika, “because what you get in the mainstream media isn’t what you see when you’re here, and I think people really need to be exposed to the Palestinian people, to the Palestinian culture and to the Palestinian cause”.

 “I think education is probably the most powerful tool in resolving this conflict,” he continues. These sentiments are echoed by one of his fellow volunteers from the UK, 18-year-old Ursula Shaw, who says that despite an interest in Palestine and the conflict before joining CADFA, she “didn’t really know anything about the Palestinian situation. I didn’t know how the Israeli government… were affecting the Palestinians in every sense.”

Shaw says her short time in Palestine has opened her eyes and that she is intent on continuing to learn about the precarious state of affairs in this land. “I don’t want to be ignorant of anything,” she states, betraying a maturity beyond her years. “I’m sure when I was talking about the Palestinian situation a month ago I was carelessly saying a lot of things, [but] I want to be accurate in what I say because of how sensitive the situation is.”

Facing the threat from Brexit

Back in the UK, the country faces a sensitive situation of its own: Brexit. The resumption of parliament has proved to be tumultuous for new Prime Minister Theresa May, as President Barack Obama has reiterated that the US will not prioritise the UK when it comes to negotiating new trade deals. Meanwhile the Japanese government has issued anextraordinary 15-page warning about the likely consequences of Brexit.

The repercussions of Britain’s EU vote are reverberating further than expected - and the situation has left Abed and Dowson feeling apprehensive.

'Now we are trying to find an alternative so we can keep having volunteers coming here'

“Unfortunately now, after Brexit, we will face problems,” explains Abed, adding that many of the twinning projects that CADFA currently organise rely on access to EU funding. “In the beginning we used self-funded volunteers,” he says. “Teachers came to Abu Dis to work with people, on their English language mainly… to report back to our website and our blogs… and also to give people the confidence to speak out.”

As the links between Camden and Abu Dis strengthened and the number of campaign activities and exchange visits grew, he explains, so too did the financial burden and time commitments necessary to sustain the projects.

“In 2010 we managed to reach access to funds through the European Voluntary Services. It has allowed us to bring four volunteers at a time, mainly from Britain and some other European countries… to come and spend three months in Abu Dis to work with the university, with the schools, with our communities,” Abed continues.

Erasmus funding

CADFA has also benefited from the Erasmus scheme which has funded an exchange project called ‘Teachers in Action’, Abed explains. 

The Erasmus Programme is an EU funded exchange programme that has been in existence since the late 1980s, and has traditionally provided foreign exchange options for students from within the European Union. The new Erasmus Plus programme which CADFA is currently benefiting from started in January 2014 and combines all the EU’s current schemes for education, training, youth and sport.

In January the scheme managed to allow 14 teachers from Palestine to visit London; in October 14 teachers from the UK will make the return trip to teach to Palestinian schools.

“Now we are trying to find an alternative so we can keep having volunteers coming here,” Abed says hopefully.

“Yes it’s true that Brexit currently looks like a huge problem for us,” agrees Nandita. “Most of our exchanges have been funded by the EU via Youth in Action [previously] and now by Erasmus Plus.”

“We don’t know any UK funds that have quite the same emphasis on people exchanging experiences with people from different cultures,” she concedes. Just this year the team have already coordinated four exchange visits for student groups, the women’s link group, a leaders cohort, and the latest youth exchange. 

With a teacher’s visit and another international youth camp still to come before 2017, Nandita and Abed are trying to exploit the opportunities available to them whilst they still can. “It’s not usually this crazy but we had a bit of a struggle to be allowed to have Erasmus Plus visits to Palestine, and when we won we had limited time to finish our projects,” explains Nandita.

“We are very worried about the future and are calling for help from people who think this work is valuable. If they can do one useful thing it would be to join us, wherever they live. Building up our membership base helps us keep going.”

Working towards a sustainable future

Despite the immense pressure being placed upon the organisation, Dowson remains resilient and determined to continue promoting human rights and bringing different communities together.

In the same week that she has reluctantly accepted CADFA will need to find an alternative, less expensive office premises – another trying issue compounded by the financial uncertainty of Brexit. She has also committed to a new partnership project with the Palestinian Higher Council of Youth and Sport.

'Now we are trying to find an alternative so we can keep having volunteers coming here'

Clearly, Dowson and Abed are not going to let the uncertainties of Brexit curtail the important work they have been committed to for so long. The belief in sustainability is now as vital as ever, as they pursue funding avenues unrestricted by the uncertainty of Britain’s EU membership.

Indeed, CADFA’s women’s links group hosts a stall in London’s Russell Square every Saturday, says Dowson, where they sell Palestinian oils and pottery to raise money for the Palestinian link groups to visit Britain.

They have also spent the summer launching crowdfunding schemes to pay for aPalestinian girls football team to visit London, and to “give a jump-start to the human rights media work with young people and women” in Abu Dis.

Promisingly, in addition to these schemes they have also secured donations from the MSN Trust and Interpal – the British Palestinian Relief and Development Fund – to support this media project.

As the UK starts to negotiate its inevitable exit from the EU, it seems likely that the charity will have to continue to attract a wider pool of donors and funding bodies to maintain its viability.

“Brexit means Brexit” is perhaps the most ambiguous political slogan of modern times. But one thing is clear: whatever the new relationship between Britain and the EU, the Camden Abu-Dis Friendship Association is determined to continue its work.

CADFA members and friends from Palestine (some of the Twinning in Action participants) visited our MP Keir Starmer to talk about the situation in Palestine and to ask for his support in the campaign for visa equality. This was underlined for us in this exchange - we've had so many problems and four people didn't get visas.

We argue that while Israel holds on to Palestinian land and builds on it on defiance of International law, the UK should either treat Palestinians like Israelis (no visas needed for UK) or Israelis like Palestinians (long, expensive and complicated UK visa system). Current UKBA rules reproduce the apartheid system drawn in Palestine by the Israelis. Keir agreed with the arguments and we hope for his help.

Conference!!

The final conference of the 2-year project took place on Saturday 17th. We're very grateful to all those who gave their very best to make it a success. We had presentations from the links groups leaders who had spent the previous week reviewing the work of the last two years and working with local people to discuss and make plans for the next period. We had film made during the Twinning in Action project. We had descriptions of the situation in the West Bank and ideas for future projects. We heard of the challenges facing our future work and were heartened by the encouragement of old friends and by new people wanting to join and volunteer on our projects. Thank you again to everyone for their different contributions as well as to the team who made a tasty barbecue for us all to follow.

This exchange

The good thing about this exchange is it's teaching me how to be a good leader and how to get messages over to my group in a good way.

The good thing about the whole project is that it focuses on women and youth, which are the most important target groups in society.

Aseel

Towards a CADFA media strategy

After listening to the evaluations by the whole group, one of the most important outcomes of this project (everyone agrees) is that CADFA projects should reach wider through available social media and it's necessary to have a media committee inside the organisation to focus on this.

Maysa

NEW HORIZONS

Thinking back about the project in general... It's not just the biggest success, but but it's opening new horizons for building new upcoming projects and having supporters from all over the globe.

Noor

Good relations

I believe that this project managed to achieve a good part of its goals. We have to study the negative points so we can do things better. We need to invest in the positive points so we can suppoet our new coming projects.

The leaders have a great spirit and they are so close to each other. This is why the projects succeed. We should keep these good relations and use them well in the future projects.

Ra'fat.

My ideas about the future for CADFA

My ideas about the future for CADFA.

(1) This is about all of the different sectors, women youth and university students... they need to go on an exchange together once a year, not always a separate one.

(2) CADFA needs to develop logistically.

Jamal

Don't forget Jerusalem!

The project is good and I remember the visit to the Al Abrahami mosque in Hebron. I hope that we can make a twinning for Jerusalem and focus on the city.

These projects help me to build my character and support my self confidence.

Summing it up

I believe that the Twinning in Action projects has been a big step forward. With all the difficulties and obstacles that CADFA has faced, we still hope that we'll be able to build on it and have future next steps.

The future of CADFA

CADFA should continue to bring people together to hear each other's stories and firsthand experiences of the lives of Palestinians. Both the difficulties and the richness of their culture and way of life.

Annika

Beachhhh

After a hard morings work, to the beach!

Rain rain

The first day of the residential in the rainy New Forest.  Doesn't matter about the rain, even though it was specially hard when we all went for a walk...

Getting going

First presentations and discussions. I felt really proud of everyone and of what we're doing and wish this work long life.

MADE IT!

After a long journey, here they are... In the middle of the New Forest,  many people sleeping after a long journey, the others relaxing,  here at last. Watch this space for more news!

Join us at the Visitors' Farewell Party (after the conference on Saturday 17th)

Join us at the conference

Calling for visa equality

We need to call on our government here in Britain to implement visa equality between Israelis and Palestinians.

This is not just a practical issue. As I write, our Palestinian friends have had a long long road to travel to get the visas for our final Twinning in Action exchange. Half of the answers have come back, and two of the young visitors have been refused visas. We are hoping the rest of the visas come today in time for travel to Britain leaving tomorrow.  We are upset about our two friends with no visas and worried about the rest.

But let's put on one side these detailed and practical questions and address the issue of visa equality.

((STOP PRESS another refusal has just come. Another young one. Another dear friend, part of the project, needed to help evaluate the project. There will be lots of sadness and disappointment and work and losses.  We will have to address these in a minute... now talking about visa equality.))

At the moment here is the situation.

Israel is breaking international law through the occupation,  through the settlements, through continuous human rights violations against the Palestinians.

They are systematically seizing the land of the Palestinians and living on it. They are imposing ethnic distinctions in every aspect, often compared to apartheid.

The International Court of Justice has decreed against their practces, the changing of the land they occupy defies the Geneva Conventions and apartheid is a crime itself. 

The Israeli government is promoting settlements and a substantial part of their population lives in settlements or through army service supports the settlements. The settlements are colonial and racist enterprises,  open to Israelis and closed to Palestinians.

They have taken over the West Bank and controlled it in every sphere for half a century, but they do not give the Palestinians a vote so they have no input to the government that controls them.

The UK government has protested against the settlements.

It also says it believes in equality and has legislation against discrimination.

It also believes in democracy and human rights.

But it is implementing a visa policy that completely reinforces the lines between people that Israelis have been building.  Under the current UK visa system, Israelis from the settlement on Abu Dis land could have come as soon as they want, with no wait for visas, and been in the UK 6 weeks and left with no problem while our Palestinian friends from Abu Dis were are struggling still to get a visa to take part in a European project.  The UK accepts the division between  Israelis and Palestinians. It even accepts the division between Palestinians in Ramallah and Jerusalem - they even pay differently for their visas - which has no basis in international law.

The UK is rewarding the people the Israelis give votes and give rights to, while Palestinians, with no votes,  rights or say, are BEING TREATED BY THE UK AS WELL AS ISRAEL AS SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS. It is therefore not helping equality, democracy or human rights.

While this apartheid system remains we are calling on our government to IMPLEMENT VISA EQUALITY.

Either
(1) deal with the Palestinians as you do with the Israelis or
(2) deal with the Israelis as you do with the Palestinians.

T
his is a call for equality, anti- discrimination, consistency and human rights.

www.cadfa.org / contact@cadfa.org

Smiles from Palestine

The youth visit to Palestine was really happy!  So many good memories. The participants from both countries are still in touch with each other and these smiles make us all optimistic :)

An unfair visa system

Preparations are taking place in the UK for the exciting visit between 9th and 18th September. So many stages to go through.

In Palestine, people are waiting for their UK visas. What a long and unfair process.

*Differences between West Bankers and Jerusalemites (there shoukd not be)*

Ee're currently glad to hear that the first of our Palestinian participants have their visas, upset to hear that two of them don't have their visas (and have written to see what we can do) and a bit worried until the rest of them arrive.. and at the same time aware how unfair this all is.

The dates of this vis­it have been set for ­a long time and we bo­ught the air tickets ­months ago. In mid-Ju­ly, the peo­ple who are coming in­ September b­egan their visa appli­cations.  They began ­to put them in the la­st week of July.  How­ever,  th­ere are several stage­s for this, and they ­need to go for finger­ prints before the ap­plication goes to Amm­an.  But already by that time the ­earliest date they co­uld get for fingerpri­nts in Ramallah was 1­7th­ August.  We managed ­to book appointments ­for people in Jerusal­em much earlier (the ­earliest was 4th­ August I think).  ­

We took all the appoi­ntments there were in­ Ramallah on 17th­ August, worried that ­the dates were tight,­ but when appointment­s for this date fille­d up, we panicked!  W­e began to persuade p­eople to get to Jerus­alem if possible in a­ny way at all, and bo­oked other appointmen­ts there (although it­ is more expensive!).­  This wasn’t possibl­e for everyone so we ­have unfortunately no­t been able to put in­ applications for som­e people we would hav­e invited.

Then we started writing letters to see if we could get official help with getting the applications on time.. and now we wait .. and worry.

MEANWHILE HOW UNFAIR.

*Differences between Palestinians and Israelis*

If instead of being Palestinian and living (most of them) in Abu Dis, our friends had been illegal Israeli settlers living in Maale Adumim settlement on Abu Dis land,  they could travel the day they chose to to the UK and come in with no visa...

We will talk more on this when our friends arrive, at the conference on Linking Together for Human Rights.

Youth links follow up their visit

Youth links people joined others at the Cadfa picnic yesterday 26th August on a beautiful afternoon in Parliament Hill Fields. This was their second group meeting - the first was also a picnic, in Regents' Park. The UK young people are still very much in touch with their Palestinian friends and taking part in follow-up activities including writing to MPS and MEPS about what they saw in Palestine.

Save the date: 17th September!

Since the beginning of 2016, CADFA'S Twinning in Action project has taken around 50 people from the UK to Palestine where they've met and worked with many more than that number, and led to many friendships (and one marriage! CONGRATULATIONS TO Ismail and Iman). They've led to many creative outputs, photos,  paintings, films and to very many different sorts of follow-up activity to promote human rights.

This is to encourage you if you can to get involved in the last stages of CADFA'S great two-year project Twinning in Action: the leader's visit in September, its women's,  students and youth parts, and to come to the conference on LINKING TOGETHER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (the final Twinning in Action conference) which will take place at the NUT in London on Saturday 17th September

The Twinning in Action leaders’ exchange 9th to 17th September 2016.

 September will see the last exchange from the Twinning in Action project.   Sixteen Palestinian leaders from each of our twinning links – women, youth, students – will come to the UK to work with people from here who have also been leaders in the Twinning in Action project to evaluate and disseminate the work of the project that has been running for the past two years. They will take part in a residential where they will look carefully at every Twinning in Action exchange so far (there have been eight), visit links groups in London, and take part in a conference on Saturday 17^th September.

This is a really special visit for us! We hope you will meet the visitors during their time in London and in particular, free up Saturday 17^th September to learn about the work of Twinning in Action and help prepare for CADFA’s next steps.

مخيم اللاجئين عايدة

من أكثر الأيام تأثير علي والتي لن تنسى بالنسبة اللي في هذا التبادل هو يوم زيارة مخيم عايدة للاجئين في بيت لحم على اعتبار اني شاب من شمال الضفة الغربية كانت هذة أول زيارة لي للمخيم اطلعنا على حياة الناس في المخيم وكيف تسير الأمور وقد استفدت كثير من هذة التجربة
محمد زيدان

شمس ساطعه وحر شديد

من الأمور التي لا تنسى خلال هذا التبادل هي زيارة موقع القرية البدوية في منطقة الخان الأحمر حيث تتمي هذة المنطقة في شهر تموز بالحر الشديد وتكون درجات الحرارة مرتفعه جدا في منتصف النهار 

محمد صباح 

An hour to shop!

When we went shopping in Ramallah yesterday afternoon with Lamyaa, Sarah, Sarah and Yasmine, we had a really funny time and bought beautiful things.

Hope

I will nver forget the warmth that the Palestinians showed us. Their willingness to give regardless of how little they may have gave me a renewed hope that humanity is still alive.

AR

Prisoners released

I will never forget the celebration when the prisoners were released from their 12 year sentence. The people in Abu Dis showed them so much respect.

Terrible story.

I don't want to forget when Nadine visited us and told us how her cousin had died.

It became very emotional as she described how her cousin was wrongly killed while on his way to work - and had a knife placed by his body by soldiers.

Getting past that Separation Wall

I'll remember the Palestinian desperation to exercise their rights... it's evident in their efforts to scale the Wall: holes, tunnels and climbing ropes have been attempted, despite the harsh, sometimes fatal, consequences.

Ursula

Injustice

The stories from the people, especially B's.  She was speaking about the injustice that Palestinians have to face daily. Although it was in Arabic, you could see her passion and how real the situation is.

The right to education, the fight for education

Education is a holy right.

Here, every family has injured or shaheeds. We still love to learn.  In Gaza, schools were not even closed when rockets fell on them.

So British students should be thankful for their education and treasure it. They should not complain when they have to wake early!

Mohammad Eriqat.

Bedouin school

I greatly enjoyed going to the Bedouin school - it has been the highlight of my trip so far. The staff and children were so happy and optimistic. They wanted to help those who were more vulnerable to not having an education.

The school was made of car tyres and with the support of volunteers.

I remember driving closer to the West Bank and knowing we were in Palestine. We all appeared to experience varied emotions when we saw the wall and ...

A reminder to work, to open our minds and our hearts at all costs

Saara H.

Memories

Marah's birthday...

Hiking in Ramallah...

Sharing pictures.

Everything, I will remember it.

Rula O.

touched by the welcome

Something I don 't want to forget is the moment some Palestinian members shared their experiences and stories of living under occupation. I was very touched by their stories and they will stay with me forever.

I have been touched by their warm welcoming and despite how little some of them may have, they are still so hospitable and selfless.

Sorcha

While having the opportunity to visit the university, we were shown a museum which was dedicated to imprisonment. It has shown all the people that are detained without a trial and in uncertainty about when they will get released.

What was amazing to me was their ability to express themselves and create stunning artwork while being confined to limited resources.

Kamil - Team Black

I will remember

Sharing our pictures....

Our trip to Ramallah....

Alaa H

We really want to remember

From this trip I don't want to forget the Palestinian people and I hope they dont forget me. I hope we remain friends and keep in touch for a long time to come.

In particular, I won't forget the prisoner celebrations, the kindness and positive attitude of the youth.

Lamyaa

--------

Hey, this is Reem and I dont want to lose connections with the whole group. I found them very kind and serious, I mean by serious that they really want to know about Palestine and us. So, I will remember every single detail.

------

I won't forget the love that has been shared between us. I won't forget the laughter that came out of our hearts. I won't forget any of the beloved students

Shurouq

Proud

The one thing I will never forget is the day the two Palestinian men were released from prison after 12 long years/ to experience what we did was just amazing. I cant express enough how lucky to be in my homeland and getting the chance to meet all these Palestinians. I could not be prouder to be a Palestinian myself.

Sarah A

Stories

You don't have to understand the language to understand the people and their stories.

The occupation makes the Palestinians stronger - they defeat the purpose!

Y

First half of the exchange

There are many things I have enjoyed so far, which makes it difficult for me to choose one.

One of the favourite things that I loves was when the Palestinians showed us around the area and took us to their homes.

Political graffiti

because the streets are filled with history. Each piece of political graffiti tells a different story and the fact that they have their shaheeds on the wall symbolises their importance and significance.

Aaliyah

Shining eyes

I will not forget the shining eyes of the UK group when they saw the Dome of the Rock when they came with me. Their eyes were saying something which all words and language will not be enough to say - the thing that I love most is that I feel the we will not be left again.

Mohammed Eriqat.

After a few weeks wait, a day of rushed packing and a 5 hour flight, we found ourselves halted a further 3 hours in Ben Gurion airport. Now, it’s not to say that weren’t exoecting this, Israeli security is renowned for it questioning (what’s your father’s name? what’s your email address?) you know, the absolutely crucial questions needed to be asks in order to allow someone into a country.

However, the end of this what seemed to be a lifetime wait, was absolutely worth it. Our drive from tel aviv to east jereusalem allowed us to see the Al-Aqsa mosque and the infamous west bank wall within the first hours of being in the holy land. Once we reached Abu Dis we were greeted with classic Palestinian hospitality in the form of food (always a winner). We got talking to our friends on the Palestinian side of CADFA who explained to us that we got it easy. The route which most Palestinians take from Jordan often takes 2 days to pass. That, combined with our warm welcome soon made our relatively small problems melt away and we were excited to start our project.

Our team (Team Black) finally got to meet the majority of the group the next morning. Surprisingly we surpassed the usual awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time,  and got straight into learning about each other’s lives. The real task of the morning was outlining the differences between our every day lives and culture. We took an informal tour around Abu Dis Guided by our new Palestinian friends, which ended up with us looking over an stunning valley overseeing the whole of the city. Much to our surprise, our appreciation of our surroundings and what seemed like a personalized tour came back to reward us. Once we got back, we were asked to list all of these differences and given all of the surrounding we took in TEAM BLACK WON!!

Here is our victory picture: we are excited for the rest of this journey and the time we will spend with our new friends. 

We felt Palestine

After a long wait at the airport we were finally on our way to the accommodation. Some of us had fallen asleep on the bus, we were hot. tired and very hungry. Until we saw the bright lights of Jerusalem from the left of the van, we all stood up and took our phones and cameras out and started taking pictures, that's when we saw it. The dome of rock and Al Aqsa.
 That's when we first felt it.
We felt Palestine

Running up to the last minute...

... and running very close to deadline.

The young people's handbook has finally gone to press! It will be printed in Palestine and we are promised it will be ready on time!

The young people travelling from the UK are very excited, full of questions and we hope they have a great time.

Arrangements are being fine-tuned in Palestine ...

and soon the UK group will be out of the rainy July UK summer and in the heat of Palestine, making new Palestinian friends. Good luck everyone!

London meeting about the youth visit

Here are some of the participants and not all (and some of their mums and not all) after our meeting in Camden on Sunday. We all agreed that it's REALLY EXCITING that the youth exchange is just about to happen! Watch this blog to learn how it goes!

Preparing for the youth visit

The Twinning in Action women's exchange is still a recent memory - "I haven't digested it all yet" said one of the participants recently - but CADFA is preparing now for the final youth exchange of the Twinning in Action project: the youth visit to Palestine."It's so exciting," said one of the young people preparing to travel, "I can't believe I'm going!"  But in less than a week - after over a year in preparation - the UK group will be travelling to Palestine.

The Twinning in Action youth visit to the UK is much further back in memory - Here are some pictures to remind us - That was an amazing experience for the people from both countries,  in Norwich, Cambridge and London... and originally the whole of the UK group of participants wanted to join the exchange to Palestine, and this is what they said...

Why do we want to visit Palestine

By CADFA Youth Links

To learn about Palestinian culture

To understand Palestinian life

To learn more about Palestinian restrictions and their treatment
To actually see the things we’ve learned about for example checkpoints and the Wall

To see different things and places

To visit Jerusalem

To see the Dead Sea

To see the people we met again

To learn more Arabic and teach some English

To eat Palestinian food

To come home and be able to tell our own stories and experiences

It took a long time for this exchange to be agreed by the funder, Erasmus +, and not all of the original group of young people will be able to come this time. But old group or new participant, we're all looking forward!

Here are the objectives of thIs exchange...

• To bring young people from Britain to meet and exchange experiences with their counterparts from Palestine

• To increase their awareness of human rights issues and to challenge discrimination

•  To give them an opportunity to make some film together about their lives as young people

• To build on previous work that CADFA has done and strengthen twinning links between schools and youth clubs in Britain and in Palestine